BHOPAL: A single member judicial commission probing the killing of eight members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) by police, hours after they escaped from Bhopal Central Jail on October 31, 2016, has submitted its report to the Madhya Pradesh government.
According to sources, the report, along with records of the probe panel's proceedings over the last nine months, was submitted to the state government’s General Administration Department (GAD) on August 24.
Sources in the state government said that the report is likely to be tabled in the Madhya Pradesh state Assembly during the winter session.
The government, as well as the commission sources, remained tight-lipped over the contents of the report, as they cannot be made public prior to the tabling of the report in the state Assembly.
Eight alleged operatives of the outlawed outfit were gunned down by the police on the outskirts of Bhopal under Gunga police station area on October 31, 2016, just a few hours after they escaped from the B Block of the Bhopal Central Jail, after killing jail guard Ramashankar Yadav.
The eight SIMI men, who were killed in the encounter, include Aqeel Khilji, Sheikh Mehboob alias Guddu, Zakir Hussain, Amjad Khan, Mohd Saliq, Mujeeb Sheikh, Khalid Ahmad, and Majid.
In November 2016, the state government appointed the judicial commission, headed by retired High Court judge SK Pandey, to probe the encounter and related aspects. The commission was given five terms of reference, including the sequence of events leading to the jailbreak, measures to prevent jailbreaks in future, the sequence of events that led to the killing of the SIMI operatives and any other related issue that the commission deemed fit to look into.