NEW DELHI: In the wake of the killing of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, a plea has been filed in Supreme Court seeking the constitution of an independent expert committee under the chairmanship of a former SC judge to inquire into police custody murder.
This comes a day after gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf was shot dead by three assailants when they were responding to reporters' queries while being escorted by police personnel to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup on Saturday night.
Levelling allegations of violation of rule of law and oppressive police brutalities in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the plea filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari says that extra judicial killings of fake encounters have been very badly condemned under the law.
“The power of punishment is only vested in the Judiciary. The police when becomes daredevils, then the entire Rule of law collapses and generates the fear in the mind of people against the police which is very dangerous for the Democracy and this also results into further crime," the plea states.
Tiwari in the plea has argued that such actions are a severe threat to the democracy and rule of law, and are establishments of anarchy and prima facie development of the police state.
Along with the setting up of a commission, the plea has also sought for inquiry into 183 encounters that had occurred since 2017 as stated by the Uttar Pradesh Special Director General of Police (Law and Order)
Furthermore, it also seeks for unearthing the fake encounters by directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate, collect and record the evidence in the Kanpur Bikru Encounter case 2020 in which Vikas Dubey and his aides were killed by police in an encounter.
“In a democratic society the police cannot be allowed to become a mode of delivering final justice or to become a punishing Authority,” it also states.