'Inappropriate Cremation' Of Ex-VP HCBA-"Shows Real Face Of Law & Order In UP": Letter Plea In Allahabad HC Seeks CBI Probe

A letter petition has been filed before the Allahabad High Court alleging that Allahabad, Allahabad, Mangla Prasad Tripathi was cremated without proper investigation by the police department on January 18, 2022, and further seeking CBI inquiry into the matter.

The letter petition has been moved by Advocates, Gaurav Dwivedi, Rajneesh Kumar Singh, O.P. Singh, Saurabh Singh, Rohit Pandey and Prabhakar Jaiswal, who all are currently practicing at the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.

The averments in the plea

The plea avers that in December 2021, Mr. Tripathi, who had served as the Vice-President of High Court Bar Association, Allahabad in 2016-17, had gone missing and the family members, as well as members of the Bar Association, tried their level best to find him by posting his pictures throughout social media and when they failed to locate him, on Jan 05, 2022, an F.I.R was registered in the matter.

Further, the Plea submits that on January 18, 2022, the picture of the unidentified body was shown to the family members, and they got to know that the unidentified body, which was cremated without proper investigation by the police department was of Ex-Senior-Vice-President of Bar Association Advocate Mangla Prasad Tripathi.

Stating that without a proper probe, the police department and Prayagraj Administration tried to obviate the body sans following the proper guidelines and snatching the rights of the dead given by the National Human Rights Commission, the Plea submits thus:

"Right to life includes right to die with dignity and being an of Ex-Senior-Vice-President of High Court Bar Association Sri Mangla Prasad Tripathi was not cremated as per the dignified manner because he was cremated by the administration/police officials in an inappropriate manner which shows the deficiency of service from the side of administration while exercising their powers in order to proceed against the missing persons dead body.

Further, submitting that without putting efforts to know the identity had cremated the body, the administration had just tried to save their skin from doing their work which they are posted for, the plea avers that this incident shows the real face of law and order in the State of Uttar Pradesh where the administration had failed to provide justice to a deceased dignity under Article 21 of Indian Constitution.

"The mysterious death of Ex-Senior-Vice-President of Bar Association Advocate Mr. Mangla Prasad Tripathi whose dead body was found beside a road in a doubtful manner shows the law and order of Prayagraj and the disposal of the missing person's dead body without following the guidelines issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court as well as National Human Rights Commission time to time to save the dignity of the dead person."

Against this backdrop, the plea seeks the following :

• Recommend and Conduct a CBI inquiry into the matter i.e. death of Ex-Senior-Vice-President of Bar Association Advocate Mr. Mangla Prasad Tripathi whose body was found on the roadside.
• Direct respondent no. 2 to file his personal affidavit regarding their efforts to contact family members of unidentified dead bodies and the process of disposal of said dead bodies in the last one year.
  
• Direct State of UP to suspend respondent no.4 and respondent no.5 and to initiate an inquiry on account of inappropriate cremation of Ex-Senior-Vice-President of Bar Association Advocate Mr. Mangla Prasad Tripathi without following the guidelines issued by Hon'ble Apex Court and NHRC.