SC to hear petition seeking SIT probe on Jan 31

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday posted for hearing on January 31 a plea seeking an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) into the recent communal incidents of violence in Tripura.

A Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said it would hear the matter next Monday and granted time to the petitioner to file a rejoinder on the affidavit filed by the Tripura government.

During the brief hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Ehtesham Hashmi, told the Bench that Tripura government affidavit in the case on asking why public-spirited citizens who filed PIL on it were silent on West Bengal violence is “totally unbecoming” of a State government to indulge in “whataboutery”.

Recently, the BJP-ruled Tripura government has vehemently opposed the petition seeking an investigation by an SIT into the communal incidents of violence in the State, saying the so-called “public-spirited persons” were silent when a “larger scale communal violence” occurred in West Bengal in May 2021 after the Bengal State Assembly elections.

The State government through its affidavit has said that the petition seeking a probe by SIT into the alleged violence during polls in Tripura was “selective” in nature and petitioners are setting a dangerous precedent by moving “self-serving PILs” when they kept silent when post-poll violence occurred in TMC-ruled West Bengal.

The affidavit was filed by the Tripura government in the plea of advocate Ehtesham Hashmi who sought the Court’s immediate intervention in hate crimes that allegedly took place in October in Tripura. The affidavit stated that the PIL is entirely on the basis of a so-called fact-finding report authored by the Hashmi with three lawyers, sponsored by the National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, CFD and People’s Union for Civil Liberties, titled ‘Humanity under Attack in Tripura #Muslim Lives Matter’.