Lakhimpur Kheri case: SC appoints ex-judge of Punjab and Haryana HC to monitor probe

The top court also reconstituted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and named three senior IPS officers.

File Photo

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 17, 2021) appointed a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri case.

The top court said that the appointment of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain has been made to ensure transparency, fairness, and absolute impartiality.

The SC also reconstituted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and included three senior IPS officers, who are not natives of Uttar Pradesh. SB Shirodkar, Deepinder Singh and Padmaja Chauhan were named in it. 

The apex court will now hear the case next after the charge sheet is filed and a report is received from the retired judge.

The development comes after the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday had agreed to the Supreme Court's suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SIT's probe on a day-to-day basis into the case. The top court, while taking note of the state's consent, had red-flagged the issue of involvement of mostly low-ranking police officers in the ongoing SIT probe in the case and had sought names of IPS officers, who are of UP cadre but not the native of the state, for being included in the investigation team.

Prior to this, the bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana had expressed dissatisfaction over the probe and suggested that to infuse "independence, impartiality and fairness" in the ongoing investigation, a former judge of a 'different high court' should monitor it on a day-to-day basis.

The bench had also said that it has no confidence and does not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the state to continue the probe into the case.

This is to be noted that the police have so far arrested 13 accused, including Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, in connection with the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight persons including four farmers were killed during a farmers' protest.