SC notice to Modi on fake encounters

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on a petition seeking a CBI probe into the alleged fake encounter of a youth branding him as a terrorist.

A bench comprising Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Aftab Alam also sought response from state home minister Amit Shah relating to the June 15, 2004, police encounter in which Javed along with three persons including a woman were killed in Ahmedabad.

The petition filed by Kerala-based M R Gopinath Pillai alleged that his son Pranesh Kumar Pillai alias Javed Shaikh was gunned down by the Gujarat police for ���having links��� with terrorist groups. The father of the deceased claimed that even four years after the incident no evidence has been produced to justify the killing of his son.

The court also sought explanation from the state government on another petition filed by poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar seeking a probe by a special investigation team into the alleged fake encounters in the state claiming that innocent people, particularly from Muslim community, were being targeted as terrorists.

The petition citing news reports and a sting operation done by a news magazine into the killing of criminal Sameer Khan in October 2002, alleged it was a fake encounter and there was an attempt by the Gujarat government to hush up the 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 who had accompanied him with a team to a spot where he had murdered a constable.

An FIR was registered alleging that Khan was involved in a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan���s ISI and Jaish-e-Mohammed to assassinate Modi and other leaders.

Seeking a CBI enquiry, he alleged: ���The accused are extremely influential persons in the administrative hierarchy and there is a strong possibility of witnesses being approached and if immediate steps are not taken then the witnesses would also be in jeopardy.���

Top police officials of the Gujarat have been made party in the petition.

Mr Akhtar���s petition filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan relied on media reports to substantiate the plea.
���It appears from all the incidents of fake encounters, a pattern has emerged of killing innocent people, particularly from Muslim community, on the pretext of they being dreaded terrorists and conspiring to kill the chief minister of the state at the behest of terrorist group like JeM,��� it said.

Mr Akhtar has alleged it has become a trend in Gujarat to demonise Muslims by declaring them dreaded terrorists and thereafter killing them in fake encounters.

In the petition, he alleged that in almost all these incidents the same group of police officials led by D G Vanzara, arrested in connection with Soharabuddin Sheikh���s killing, have been found to be involved and in many such incidents there has been a massive cover-up.