PIL In Supreme Court Seeks Inquiry Into Killings Of Atique Ahmed, Ashraf & 183 Encounters In UP By A Panel Led By Former SC Judge

A PIL plea has been moved before the Supreme Court seeking constitution of an independent expert committee under the chairmanship of a retired SC Judge to inquire into the killing of Atique Ahmed and his brother Ashraf by 3 assailants on Saturday while they were in police custody.

The PIL plea, filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari also seeks an inquiry into the 183 encounters which have occurred in the state of Uttar Pradesh since 2017.

#JustIn | A PIL plea has been moved before the #SupremeCourt to constitute an independent expert committee under the chairmanship of a retired SC Judge to inquire into the killing of #AtiqueAhmed and his brother #Ashraf by 3 assailants yesterday while they were in police custody. pic.twitter.com/xBiYOS21Xl

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) April 16, 2023

It may be noted that the Ahmad brothers were shot dead in a shocking incident on Saturday night at around 10 pm in the presence of the police and the media while they were being taken for a medical examination to a hospital in Prayagraj.

The three accused came to the spot posing as journalists and shot the Ahmed brothers point-blank range in full view of media persons and the incident was captured live on television channels. The incident took place just two days after Atique's son Asad was killed in an encounter.

The PIL plea states that though the private assailants were arrested immediately by the UP Police, however, during the commission of the offence, there was no protection and retaliation from police's end which creates a question on the transparency on the functionong of the police and proves that the incident was a pre-planned attack

Referring to killings of Ahmed brothers and the 2020 encounter of Vikas Dubey, the PIL plea argues that "such actions by police are a severe threat to democracy and rule of law and lead to police state".

"The police when becomes DARE DEVILS then the entire Rule of law collapses and generates the fear in the mind of people against police which is very dangerous for the Democracy and this also results into further crime...In a democratic society the police cannot be allowed to become a mode of delivering final justice or to become a punishing Authority. The power of punishment is only vested in the Judiciary," the PIL plea states.

The PIL plea also questions the encounter killing of Vikas Dubey, a notorious criminal, history-sheeter and a gangster-turned-politician from UP's Kanpur district who was killed by UP Police in July 2020 in an encounter.

The plea further questions the credibility of the report and findings of a three-member inquiry commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice(Retd) B S Chauhan formed to inquire into Vikas Dubey Encounter which found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Uttar Pradesh police in the encounter killings.

Importantly, the PIL plea argues that if any accused, who is under the police custody, gets killed, then it raises doubt on the police efficiency and also raises doubt and smells conspiracy. In this regard, referring to Ahmed Brothers killings, the PIL plea states that there might be 2 aspects that either the killings a crime committed by some other gangsters or it was a conspiracy involving the system.

Further, teferring to the meance of fake encounters, the PIL plea states thus:

"...in a democracy the state should be a welfare state and not a police state, the function of police is to detect and investigate the crime and bring him to the Court of Law of a country but in recent times our nation is witnessing the police encounters and deaths in the police custody which prima facie does not appear to be justified and if such practices remains unchecked and if such police officials remains unpunished then it is an alarming situation for the coming time"

Against this backdrop, the PIL plea seeks following prayers

• Issue writ of mandamus/directions in the interest of justice and to unearth the fake encounters by directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate, collect and record the evidence in Kanpur Bikru Encounter case 2020 in which Vikas Dubey and his aides were killed by police in encounter as the inquiry commission could not record the evidence in rebuttal of police version and has filed the inquiry report in absence of that.
• Issue of guidelines/directions to safeguard the Rule of law by constituting an Independent Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Former Supreme Court Justice to inquire into the 183 encounters which had occurred since 2017 as stated by Uttar Pradesh Special Director 21 General of Police (Law and Order) and also to inquire into the police custody murder of Atiq and Ashraf gangster turned politician.