New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday sought
the stands of the Centre and all state governments on a plea for independent probe into all cases of alleged killings by police in staged shootouts in past 10 years in the country.
A bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash
Desai sought replies of the Union and the state governments,
issuing them notices on a petition filed by the Gujarat
government, which sought court`s direction to deal with all
cases of fake encounters in a uniform manner.
The Gujarat government alleged that some vested interest
groups are selectively targetting its police force over the
encounter killings.
The petition said the Gujarat government is seeking "an
appropriate direction from this court to deal with all cases
of fake encounters in the country in an uniform manner which
would ensure that while human rights are protected, police
force of terrorism-prone Gujarat is not left demoralised on
the ground that some vested interest groups are selectively
targetting the police force of only one state."
The petition sought a direction to all state governments
and Union Territories to evolve and formulate a uniform
nation-wide policy providing for an independent agency like
"monitoring authority / special task force" created by the
Gujarat government to probe into all cases of alleged fake
encounters.
It said such a step is necessary so as to ensure that on
one hand extra-judicial killings under the garb of fake
encounters would stop, and the honest police officers,
discharging their duties against terrorist organisations /
organised criminals too are not left demoralised and working
under the threat of possibility of motivated allegations
against them.
The monitoring authority should further be directed to
place its p1robe report before the apex court, the petition
said.
PTI
