Javed Akhtar plea on Gujarat encounters

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday referred a petition filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar, seeking a probe into alleged fake encounters in Gujarat, to the bench hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case. A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan tagged Akhtar’s petition with that of Sohrabuddin’s case, in which the investigation was being monitored by a bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee. The court, however, refrained from issuing a notice to the Gujarat government saying the concerned bench would decide on it.

Akhtar, who sought a probe by a special investigation team into the alleged fake encounters, has cited news reports and a recent sting operation by a news magazine into the killing of criminal Sameer Khan in October 2002. He alleged that it was a fake encounter and there was an attempt at the highest level of the Gujarat government to hush up the entire incident.

Khan, who was in police custody, was killed on the intervening night of October 21-22, 2002, when he allegedly snatched the revolver of a policeman accompanying him, along with a team, to a spot where he had murdered a constable. An FIR was lodged alleging that Khan was involved in a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan’s ISI and terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi and other leaders.

Akhtar, who jointly filed the petition with social activist Shabnam Hashmi, alleged it was the same Gujarat police team which had killed Sohrabuddin Sheikh in the fake encounter and later murdered his wife Kauser Bi.

The petition, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, contended that there were other media reports of killing of innocent persons in fake encounters by the same Gujarat police team, and sought a probe by a special investigation team into the “cover up” of Khan’s killing. “

It appears from all the incidents of fake encounters, a pattern has emerged of killing innocent people, particularly from the Muslim community, on the pretext that they were dreaded terrorists conspiring to kill the chief minister of the state at the behest of terrorist groups like JeM,” the petition said. Akhtar claimed it had been found that in all such incidents, the police officials were being awarded and declared ‘heroes’.

The petition alleged that in almost all these incidents the same group of police officials led by D G Vanzara, arrested in connection with Sohrabuddin’s killing, have been found to be involved, and in many such incidents there has been a massive cover-up by ‘top-placed people’.

“In these circumstances, it is not possible that there will be any proper and independent investigation into these crimes by an investigative agency which is even remotely under the influence of the state government,” the petition said.