New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government was Friday asked by the Supreme Court to file a “comprehensive affidavit” explaining how politician-gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were killed while they were being taken for a medical check-up in police custody.
A bench of justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta issued the direction on a petition filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari seeking an independent inquiry into the killing, which took place on 15 April at Prayagraj and was caught on camera.
The killing took place a fortnight after the top court had declined Atiq’s petition raising apprehensions that he might be killed in a “fake police encounter”.
The former Lok Sabha member of the Samajwadi Party was the prime accused in the murder of Umesh Pal, who had earlier been a witness in the killing of a Bahujan Samaj Party legislator in 2005.
The Supreme Court has also asked UP to submit information on the inquiry into the alleged encounter killings of the other accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, including Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad. The court also wants to know what steps the state had taken on the report of the Justice B.S. Chauhan commission that carried out an inquiry into the Vikas Dubey encounter case.
Set up by the UP government following a petition filed by Tiwari in the top court, the panel had given a clean chit to the state police in the alleged Vikas Dubey encounter killing, but made some suggestions. Tiwari has now, in his petition on Atiq Ahmed’s killing, questioned the finding of the Justice Chauhan commission report.
During the brief hearing in the court, the judges asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented UP, on how the killers got information about the movement of the Ahmed brothers.
Further, it questioned why the police made the two walk to the hospital entry gate, instead of taking them inside in an ambulance.
‘Atiq’s family embroiled in heinous crimes’
Rohatgi made a fervent plea to the bench not to issue notice in the matter, defended the police’s role, and said “everyone saw the killings on television”.
“The killers came in the guise of news photographers. They had passes, were carrying cameras, and were even carrying identity cards that were later found to be fake. There were 50 people at the spot,” the senior counsel said, alleging that Ahmed and his family had been embroiled in heinous crimes for the last 30 years.
“It is possible that they (Ahmed brothers) were killed by those whose wrath they had encountered,” Rohatgi said, informing the court that this was one of the angles the inquiry panel, constituted immediately after the killings, was looking into.
When the court insisted on knowing how the killers knew about the brothers’ location, Rohatgi said that, in line with a judgment of the top court, any accused in police custody must be taken for a medical examination every two days.
To the court’s query on why they were made to get off at the entrance gate and then “paraded”, the senior counsel explained that it was a “very short distance” so they were made to walk.
Once again urging the bench not to issue notice on the petition, Rohatgi disclosed the details of the commission set up on the orders of the state government, assuring the bench an independent probe was going on.
“The commission comprises two chief justices, another judge, and a police officer. We have also appointed an SIT (special investigation team). What more can we do?” Rohatgi said.
Tiwari, however, said his plea was also meant to probe encounter killings in Uttar Pradesh in general, to which the bench said that it would first look into the status report to be filed by the state and, if needed, request the commission to consider the other incidents as well.
“If there is indeed a pattern, we could always request the commission to consider other sample cases,” the bench said.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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