UP government orders judicial probe into Mathura violence which killed 29 people

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday ordered judicial probe into the violence that occurred in Mathura during an encroachment drive.

The inquiry will be conducted by retired Allahabad High Court judge Imtiyaz Murtaza. 

29 people, including Mathura SP Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Kumar Yadav, were killed in the clash between the police and encroachers that broke out in the city on June 2 when police tried to evict illegal occupants, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, from Jawahar Bagh on Allahabad High Court orders.

Meanwhile, doctors today conducted post-mortem of Ram Vriksha Yadav, who had led the encroachers of Jawahar Bagh and was among those killed, before he was cremated.

Police did not hand over the body of Yadav to one of his council members Tarni Kumar Gautam, who had came to claim it, after conducting of post-mortem along with 18 others including two woman, police said.

The post-mortem were conducted by a team of five doctors led by Assitant CMO Brajesh Khanna, including Dr Bhudeo, Dr Anup Chaudhari, Dr Mahipal Singh and Dr Amit Agrawal, as per PTI.

Yesterday, in the first major fallout after the Mathura clashes, the Akhilesh Yadav government had shunted out the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Mathura.

On the other hand, in its report to the Union Home Ministry yesterday, the state government rejected BJP's charge that there was political pressure on police to not evict encroachers from Jawahar Bagh park and said the recent violence there was the result of the failure of local authorities.

The report also said that the police was forced to act before they had made adequate preparations following an attack by the cult members. The members of the obscure cult were heavily armed and outnumbered the police force which went to evict the encroachers from the park on a court order, the report added, noting that grenades and automatic weapons were freely used against the police.

Links to Naxals have not been ruled out given the quantity and type of weapons used by Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi - an outfit that claimed to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

(With Agency inputs)