A PIL petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court asking for the creation of an impartial expert committee to conduct an investigation into the murder of Atique Ahmed and his brother Ashraf by three assailants on Saturday while they were in police custody. The committee will be presided over by a retired SC judge.
In addition, an investigation of the 183 encounters that have taken place in the state of Uttar Pradesh since 2017 is requested in the PIL petition submitted by attorney Vishal Tiwari.
It should be recalled that the Ahmad brothers were being transported for a medical examination to a hospital in Prayagraj when they were shot dead in a horrifying occurrence on Saturday night at approximately 10 pm in front of the police and the media.
The Ahmed brothers were shot at point-blank range in full view of media personnel by the three accused, who had arrived at the scene pretending to be journalists. The incident was broadcast live on television. Atique’s son Asad was killed in an encounter just two days before to the tragedy.
The PIL complaint claims that even though the UP Police immediately arrested the private attackers, there was no protection or retaliation from their end during the commission of the crime, raising concerns about how transparently the police operate and demonstrating that the incident was a planned attack.
The PIL complaint makes reference to the deaths of the Ahmed brothers and Vikas Dubey’s encounter in 2020, claiming that “such actions by police are a severe threat to democracy and rule of law and lead to police state.”
“When the police become into DARE DEVILS, the entire system of the Rule of Law collapses, instilling in the public a fear of the police that is exceedingly bad for democracy and also leads to an increase in crime…A democratic society cannot let the police to take on the role of a punishing authority or a means of administering final justice. According to the PIL argument, only the judiciary has the authority to impose punishment.
Vikas Dubey, a renowned criminal, history-sheeter, and gangster-turned-politician from the Kanpur area of Uttar Pradesh who was slain by UP Police in an encounter in July 2020, is also questioned in the PIL petition.
The argument further calls into question the veracity of the report and conclusions of a three-member commission set up to look into the Vikas Dubey Encounter and led by former Supreme Court justice Justice (Retd) B S Chauhan, which found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Uttar Pradesh police in the encounter killings.
Importantly, the PIL plea contends that if an accused person in police custody is slain, it casts doubt on the effectiveness of the police as well as casts doubt and reeks of collusion. In this regard, the PIL plea makes reference to the murders of the Ahmed Brothers and suggests two possibilities: either the crimes were performed by other gangsters, or there was a systemic conspiracy.
In addition, referring to the notion of fake encounters, the PIL plea reads as follows: “…in a democracy the state should be a welfare state and not a police state, the function of police is to detect and investigate the crime and bring him to the Court of Law of a country but in recent times our nation is witnessing the police encounters and deaths in the police custody which prima facie does not appear to be justifiable and if such practises remain unchecked and if such
police personnel go unpunished, the scenario is frightening for the future.
SUBMITTED BY NEHA A. PARDESHI/4TH Year BLS LLB/TRCL
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