Fake encounter probe: Supreme Court panel finds no evidence of government's involvement

NEW DELHI: A committee appointed by the Supreme Court, headed by retired top court judge HS Bedi, has not found evidence of the state government's involvement in any of the 22 cases of encounter deaths in Gujarat. And there is no pattern that people from the minority community were targeted as terrorists, the panel is likely to conclude.

But there is evidence of wrong-doing by police officers in at least three encounter cases, which appear to be fake, a top legal source with direct knowledge of the ongoing probe told ET.

The Supreme Court in 2012 had appointed retired Supreme Court Judge Justice HS Bedi as Chairman of a Monitoring Authority tasked with probing all deaths resulting from encounters in Gujarat from 2002 to 2006. Activists allege that these encounters were fake.

The direction, from a bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, came in response to two PILs filed by veteran journalist B G Verghese and poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, who requested a probe by an independent agency or the CBI.

“There is no such pattern that Muslims were targeted, we had cases of deaths of Hindus and Sikhs also. These cases were of individuals who came from Kerala, Garhwal, UP and MP. A Sikh, from Gujarat was also killed,” disclosed the person cited earlier.

“And what we found out that in almost all the cases, the individuals killed had criminal records,” he said.

Justice Bedi was unavailable for comments but a source in the monitoring authority said the final report will be submitted within three- four months.

The SC Bench, in 2012, had insisted on monitoring of probe by “someone whose integrity is completely beyond any question.” “We, accordingly, deem it fit to request Justice Bedi to head and monitor the investigation of the cases of alleged fake encounter enumerated in the writ petitions,” the Bench said.