A petition was filed with the Supreme Court on Sunday, a day after gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his sibling Ashraf were shot dead under police protection, requesting the formation of an independent expert committee headed by a former apex court judge to investigate the killings.
The petition, filed by attorney Vishal Tiwari, also requested an investigation into the 183 encounters that have occurred in Uttar Pradesh since 2017.
Saturday night, Ahmad (60) and Ashraf, who were handcuffed and being escorted by police to a medical college in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, for an examination, were shot and killed by three men posing as journalists while they were responding to questions from reporters.
The last rites of Ahmad’s son Asad, who, along with one of his associates, was gunned down by police in Jhansi on April 13, were performed just hours before the murder.
Asad and his accomplice were among the 183 alleged criminals killed in encounters during the six-year tenure of the government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh Police stated on Friday.
The petition requested the formation of a committee of independent experts to investigate the deaths of Atiq and Ashraf.
“Issue guidelines/directions to safeguard the rule of law by constituting an Independent Expert Committee under the chairmanship of a former Supreme Court justice to investigate the 183 encounters reported by the Uttar Pradesh Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) since 2017, as well as the police custody murders of Atiq and Ashraf,” it stated.
Referring to Atiq’s murder, the petition stated, “Such police actions pose a grave threat to democracy and the rule of law, and lead to a police state.”
“In a democratic society, it is inadmissible for the police to become a definitive arbiter of justice or a sanctioning authority. “Only the judiciary has the authority to punish,” the plea stated.
The argument stated that extrajudicial murders and staged police encounters are prohibited by law.
When the police become “Dare Devils, the entire rule of law collapses and creates fear in the minds of the people towards the police, which is very dangerous for democracy and also leads to an increase in crime,” the report stated.
