HC seeks details of cases Haryana plans to withdraw

COURT ALSO SEEKS STATUS REPORT FROM SIT CONSTITUTED TO SCRUTINISE FIRS WHERE UNTRACED REPORTS HAVE BEEN PREPARED BY POLICE

CHANDIGARH:THE Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday directed the Haryana government to submit details of FIRS, registered in connection with the violence witnessed during February 2016 Jat quota protests, the state plans to withdraw.

During the resumed hearing of a suo motu petition initiated by the high court in February 2016 after widespread violence was reported in the state, the bench of justice AK Mital and justice AS Grewal was prompted to pass the order after amicus curiae in the matter, senior advocate Anupam Gupta referred to media reports on the government plans to withdraw cases.

“If these are petty cases, I do not have any problem. But if cases where arson, attacks on police stations and other similar kind of cases are to be withdrawn, it would set a bad precedent,” he said.

Gupta argued that it was not an ordinary student protest or a labour union protest and its gravity was recorded in the Prakash Singh committee report. Former Uttar Pradesh DGP Prakash Singh had headed a committee which examined the role of officials in Jat quota violence.

After Jats threatened to hold a parallel rally in Jind in February 2018 alongside the rally of BJP national chief Amit Shah, the government had held talks with Jat leaders and reportedly assured that cases would be withdrawn.

State’s advocate general BR Mahajan said the details would be given at the level of area magistrates, where the cases are pending. However, Gupta reasoned that since the case was being monitored by the high court, before state files application for withdrawal of these cases, the high court should be kept informed.

Meanwhile, the high court also sought a status report from the special investigation team (SIT), headed by inspector general of police (IGP) Amitabh Singh Dhillon, constituted to scrutinise FIRS where untraced reports have been prepared by the local police. A report was submitted by Dhillon in October 2017. But thereafter, no report has been submitted by him.

The SIT is scrutinising 1,105 FIRS, including 921 cases in which untraced repots were prepared but not filed and 184 cases, which are still under investigation.

A total of 1,212 FIRS were registered for arson during the Jat quota violence in Rohtak district in 2016.