Supreme Court orders setting up of SIT to probe allegations of Muslim youth in 2023 Akola riots

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Maharashtra government to set up a special investigation team, comprising senior police officers of both Hindu and Muslim communities, to investigate into allegations made by a Muslim youth related to assault upon him and killing of an auto driver during riots in Akola on May 13, 2023.

The appellant Mohammad Afzal Mohammad Sharif claimed, he had witnessed the assault upon an auto driver, Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad, who died later, purportedly made under the mistaken identity of being a Muslim. He alleged he was also assaulted but the police did not do anything despite recording his statement in the hospital and subsequent filing of a complaint.

He also claimed he had found photograph of one of the four assailants in the flex board of Shiv Sena a few days after the incident.

Taking up his plea against the Bombay High Court's rejection of his writ petition, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma ordered the SIT to investigate the matter by registering an FIR also in connection with the assault upon him.

The court took a serious view of ''total dereliction of duty on part of police, be it deliberate or due to sheer carelessness'' due to their failure to investigate the cognisable offence.

"When members of the police force don their uniforms, they are required to shed their personal predilections and biases, be they religious, racial, casteist or otherwise. They must be true to the call of duty attached to their office and their uniform with absolute and total integrity. Unfortunately, in the case on hand, this did not happen,'' the bench said.

The court directed the SIT to file the investigation report before it within three months.

In its judgment, the bench said, "If, in fact, the deceased was really murdered under the impression that he belonged to Muslim community and the assailants were not of that community, that was a fact that had to be ascertained after thorough and proper investigation".

Neither the officers of the Old City Police Station, Akola, nor Sandip Ghuge, Superintendent of Police, Akola, lived up to the expectation that reposed in them as upholders of the law to take prompt and appropriate action, the court felt.

In its judgment, the court also ordered the Secretary, Home Ministry, to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against all erring police officials, in accordance with law and due procedure, for the patent dereliction of duties.

The court also directed for taking measures to instruct and sensitize the rank and file in the police department as to what law requires of them in the discharge of their duties.