Supreme Court to hear petition seeking probe into Atiq Ahmed murder in police presence

The Supreme Court has decided to hear a petition seeking the formation of an independent expert committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the Atiq Ahmed murder in the presence of police in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The top court agreed to list the hearing for April 28 on Monday for investigating the killing of Atiq and his brother.

Advocate Vishal Tiwari requested an urgent hearing of his case before a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and informed the court that the matter was due to be listed today. CJI Chandrachud stated that numerous topics could not be listed because five judges were unavailable due to illness.

In the Supreme Court, Advocate Vishal Tiwari stated that his petition requested an investigation into extrajudicial executions in Uttar Pradesh. In the plea filed by Tiwari, he has asked for an independent expert committee, chaired by a former Supreme Court judge to be formed for inquiry into Atiq Ahmed murder.

Advocate Vishal Tiwari has also petitioned the Supreme Court to form an independent expert committee to investigate the 183 encounters reported by the Uttar Pradesh Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) since 2017, as well as the police custody murders of Atiq and Ashraf, gangster-turned-politicians.On April 15 night, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead while being brought to a hospital in Prayagraj amid police presence.

In his public interest litigation, Advocate Vishal Tiwari also asked the court to issue a directive to unearth the fake encounters by directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct an investigation, collect, and record evidence in the Kanpur Bikru Encounter case 2020, in which Vikas Dubey and his associates were killed by police in the encounter, because the inquiry commission was unable to record evidence in rebuttal of the police version and filed the report of inquiry in its absence.

“The DARE DEVILS which Uttar Pradesh police tried to become,” the petition said.

The petitioner stated that his public interest litigation is in response to Uttar Pradesh’s breach of the rule of law and oppressive police brutality.

The petitioner informed the court that he had approached the court in a case associated to the Kanpur encounter with Vikas Dubey and stated that a similar incident had been replicated by Uttar Pradesh police, namely the encounter killing of Asad, the son of Atiq Ahmad, a gangster turned politician, and in Atiq Ahmad murder and his brother Ashraf’s murder by private assailants while they were both in police custody and were taken for medical examination.

The petitioner stated that, such instances pose a serious threat to democracy and the rule of law, and such acts constitute the foundations of anarchy and the preliminary establishment of the police state.

He also mentions that extra-judicial killings or fake police encounters have been severely disapproved of by the law, and that such things cannot exist in a democratic society. He further stated that the police are not permitted to become an instrument of delivering final justice or a punishing authority.