Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to Gujarat Government and Chief Minister Narender Modi on a petition seeking CBI inquiry into an alleged fake encounter in which a youth was killed in 2004.
The petition filed by Kerala-based M R Gopinath Pillai alleged that his son Pranesh Kumar Pillai alias Javed Shaikh was gunned down by the Gujarat police for having links with terrorist groups but even four years after the incident there was no evidence to the effect.
A Bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam also sought response from state Home Minister Amit Shah relating to the June 15, 2004 police encounter in which Javed along with three persons including a woman were killed in Ahmedabad.
The court also issued a notice to the state government on another petition filed by poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar seeking a probe by a special investigation team into the alleged fake encounters in Gujarat claiming that innocent people, particularly from Muslim community, were being targeted as terrorists.
The petition citing news reports and a sting operation done by a news magazine into the killing of criminal Sameer Khan in October 2002, alleged it was a fake encounter and there was an attempt by the Gujarat government to hush up the incident.
Khan, who was in police custody, was killed on the intervening night of October 21-22, 2002 when he allegedly snatched the revolver of a policeman who had accompanied him with a team to a spot where he had murdered a constable.
An FIR was registered alleging that Khan was involved in a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan’s ISI and Jaish-e-Mohammed to assassinate Modi and other leaders.
