No fault on part of police in killing of Atiq, Ashraf, UP govt tells SC

The court was seized of two petitions – one by Advocate Vishal Tiwari, raising questions on the deaths of gangster Vikas Dubey and his gang members as well as the killings of Atiq, Ashraf, Atiq’s son Asad and gang member Mohd Ghulam, and the other by Atiq’s sister Aisha Noori, seeking court-monitored probe into the killing of her brothers.

Rejecting the allegations against the state police, the UP government affidavit said, “It is submitted that each of the seven incidents highlighted by the petitioner in his pleadings have been thoroughly investigated by the State, in accordance with the directions/guidelines issued by this Hon’ble court in various decisions, and where the investigations are complete, no fault has been found on the part of the police.”

Tiwari’s petition “specifically raised grievances against the report of” Justice (retired) B S Chauhan Commission, which the state said, “categorically found no fault with the actions of the police in the cases of the deaths of the members of Vikas Dubey’s gang”.

The UP government pointed out that the petitioner had raised objections even to the constitution of the Justice Chauhan Commission, which were rejected by the SC. The state added that the final report of the panel was placed before the SC, which “directed” it “to take appropriate action on the recommendations submitted by the… commission”.

Outlining the action taken in the case of encounter deaths of Vikas Dubey and his gang members, including the details of the magisterial inquiry, the status report said, “Thus… apart from the Justice B S Chauhan Commission’s report finding no fault with the actions of the state, even the criminal inquiries, magisterial inquiries and human rights commission have not found fault with the State.”

“Most importantly, FRs (Final Reports) finding no fault with the police action were accepted by the competent courts, there were no protest petitions by any kin of the slain accused and/or other third party challenging the same” and “therefore” the petitioner “re-agitating the same issues over and over again in purported public interest is nothing but an abuse of process of the Hon’ble court”.

On the death of Asad and Mohd Ghulam, the state said further investigation and magisterial inquiry had found no fault of the police and that “inquiry by the” two-member judicial “commission” headed by former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Rajeev Lochan Mehrotra “is presently underway”.

The state pointed out that a three-member SIT, headed by Additional DCP, crime, was constituted to probe the killing of Atiq and Ashraf and that it is further being supervised by a three-member supervision team under the chairmanship of ADG, Prayagraj zone.

Three accused were arrested during the probe and chargesheet filed against them under various provisions of the IPC, Arms and Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, it said, adding that “investigation is partially ongoing to collect evidence on some other points”.

A five-member commission under the chairmanship of former Allahabad HC Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhonsle is also looking into the matter, the state said.

“Thus… the state is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a fair and impartial investigation into the incidents mentioned in the” writ petition “and the sweeping allegations against the state made therein are completely false and unjustified”, the status report said.

The UP government further said that it “has always complied with all orders passed by” the SC and has issued directions that daily progress reports of police actions, including number of accused arrested, injured and killed in police action, should be submitted to the DGP Headquarters district-wise.

It said “there is regular monitoring of police self-defence action in which accused persons have died. In all the police encounter incidents that have taken place since 2017, details related to the killed criminals and the results of the investigation/enquiry are collected and scrutinised every month at the police headquarters level”.

“Regular review is done at the police headquarters level after receiving information from all zones/commissionerates regarding investigation/magisterial enquiries of cases registered in relation to criminals killed in the actions taken by police in self-defence and ongoing enquiries by the National Human Rights Commission. Further, the Office of State Crime Records Bureau, Lucknow, while monitoring the incidents related to deaths in police encounters, sends information about all the incidents to the NHRC every six months,” the status report said.