Apex Court seeks status report on UP violence
STATE ASKED TO EXPLAIN ABOUT ARRESTS, PROBE TEAMS
Terming “unfortunate” the killing of eight people including four farmers in the Oct. 3 Lakhimpur Kheri incident, the Supreme Court yesterday sought a status report by today from the Uttar Pradesh government on the accused named by the police in their First Information Report (FIR) and whether they have been arrested.
The apex court has also sought details of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the judicial inquiry commission, reportedly set up by the state government.
The incident, which triggered a major political storm, with the opposition parties accusing the BJP government in UP of shielding the culprits, was heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana as a suo motu (on its own) case.
“You yourself have pointed out, it has also been reported and it is in the letter petition, which we have received, that eight persons, some of them are farmers and one is journalist and there are other persons also who have been killed. These all are unfortunate incidents in which different persons have been murdered,” the bench said.
Grievance noted
“We need to know who are the accused persons against whom you have registered the FIR and whether they have been arrested or not. Please explain this in your status report,” it said and fixed the case for hearing today.
The bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, started by saying, “Grievance is that you are not looking into it (incident) properly and the FIR is not registered properly.”
Lawyer Garima Prasad, appearing for the state government, also termed the incident as unfortunate and said that an SIT and the judicial commission of inquiry have been set up by the government and she would provide the details in the status report.
Earlier in the day, the top court said it would like to hear the two lawyers who had written a letter seeking a high-level judicial inquiry, also involving the CBI, into the incident. The matter was again taken up and adjourned until today after oral directions to the state government.