Supreme Court notice on plea for SIT probe into Tripura violence

The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and Tripura government on a plea for constitution of a special investigation team to probe recent violence in the state in the run-up to local body elections. The bench will hear the case on December 13.

A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, which had recently ordered the Centre to rush central para-military forces to the state to ensure free and fair polls, issued notices on a plea filed by advocate Ehtesham Hasmi. The petition was argued by advocate Prashant Bhushan. Hashmi was one of the members of a fact-finding committee which visited the state recently.

The state police had subsequently slapped UAPA charges against members of the team and also issued them notices to take down 'offensive social media comments'. The members have denied the charges. The petition alleged that there was proof that the recent violence was organised by armed gangs and the police and the administration were in cahoots with them.


The BJP administration had also refused to file FIRs on behalf of the affected people, the plea said. The state saw unprecedented violence against Muslims in October in the run up to elections. No arrests were made in connection with the violence, the petition alleged. It urged the court to set up a special investigation team to probe the violence.

SITs under court monitoring have become common in recent days, especially in all cases of political violence. With the CBI reporting to the Centre, opposition parties have made this a rule of sorts but with mixed success.