HC notice on plea for independent probe into Junaid’s killing

false witnesses were introduced, statements of real witnesses were arbitrarily recorded without actually eliciting information from them and material evidence been not taken into record...

THE PETITION

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued notice to the Haryana government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a petition seeking an independent probe into the lynching of Junaid Khan, a Faridabad youth, in July 2017.

The high court acted on the petition of Jalaluddin, father of Junaid, and sought responses from the CBI and the Haryana governemnt by November 1.

The 16-year-old Junaid was killed on Mathura-bound train on June 22.

The petitioner father has stated that all the witnesses’ statements were deliberately distorted to introduce “ambiguity, discrepancies and contradictions” so as to benefit the accused. The stab injuries to two accompanying Junaid and his lynching was motivated by deep rooted communal hatred against the community of the victims, the petition said.

“The investigating agency (police) has carried out a seemingly casual and shoddy investigation. However, beneath the surface it becomes clear that the power and functions of investi- gation have been subverted in a calculated manner (to favour accsued)…,” the petition states.

It has been argued that the conduct of the accused and others as a lynching mob has been concealed and projected as if the occurrence /events were sudden. The police deliberately acted with undue haste because the crime had attracted huge nationwide outcry, the petition said. “To achieve this nefarious objective, false witnesses were introduced, statements of real witnesses were arbitrarily recorded without actually eliciting information from them and material evidence been not taken into record,” the petition states.