Notice to UP govt on Muslim youth's 'fake encounter' killing
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government on a petition alleging fake encounter killing of a Muslim 'paralytic' youth by the Mathura police.
The petitioner, Jhadmal, 71-year old father of deceased Mohd Shakeel, pleaded to the apex court to restrain the police from disposing of his son's body.
He alleged that during the last two months, 20 such fake encounters were carried by a Mathura SHO, who, he claimed, is close to the Mayawati government.
A vacation bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad, while issuing notice to the UP's Additional Advocate General and others, posted the matter for further hearing to Wednesday.
The petitioner, through counsel D K Garg, submitted that his 28-year-old son, a resident of Rajasthan, suffered a road accident on November 24, 2009 in Jaipur which totally paralysed the right side of his body.
As the medical fraternity in Rajasthan gave up hope of his recovery, he was being taken to Haribans Charitable Hospital, Mathura, for treatment on May 15 by his brothers Aleem and Samaydeen in a motorcyle when they were intercepted by the police.
According to the petitioner, after intercepting them the cops demanded the trio to produce their driving licence. Even though Aleem and Samayadeen explained that they had left behind the licence at their house in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, the cops forced them to fetch it and kept Saleem, a paraletic, in their custody as a security for their return, he submitted.
The deceased' father contended that on May 16, the family was shocked to read media reports that Saleem was killed in an encounter with Farha police after allegedly attempting to rob the Jundvai village pradhan, Pratap Singh, of his Bolero vehicle along with certain other criminals.
The petition said that immediately after the incident, about 20 pradhans of different panchayats in Rajasthan went to Farha and demanded the body but the police refused to hand it over insisting that they themselves will perform the last rites. It was also alleged that the police got the postmortem report manipulated.
It urged the apex court to direct the UP Government to hand over the body to the family besides initiating action against guilty police officers.
