New Delhi, 25 January 2012

On activist, Bollywood writer and Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar’s plea, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam today asked committee headed by ex-apex court judge to look into encounter killings from 2002 and 2006 in Gujarat. Congress party’s national spokesperson Rashid Alvi welcomed the decision.

Justice Aftab Alam asked Chairman of monitoring authority, Justice(retires) MB Shah to submit first report on this in three months.

In April 2011, the Gujarat government had set up a Special Task Force as well as a monitoring authority under Justice M B Shah, a former Supreme Court judge, following allegations that the local police was deliberately letting the trail go cold.The Supreme Court order today gave blanket authority to select investigators, if necessary from outside the state, to “thoroughly look into and reveal the truth” behind shootout deaths between 2002 and 2006.

The Supreme Court empowered Justice MB Shah committee to hear the victims or their representatives, call for records from both the local police as well as the human rights commission and also “grant interim or final relief” with regard to compensation awards to the victims.

Justice Aftab Alam headed bench of Supreme Court allowed retired Justice MB Shah to pick any police officer for probe from within and outside the state.

The court was hearing two PILs filed by journalist B.G. Verghese and Rajya Sabha MP activist Javed Akhtar, seeking a through investigation into 21 alleged fake encounters in Gujarat since 2003. The petitioners sought monitory relief for relatives of those killed in encounters.

In November 2011 the Supreme Court had agreed to go into all alleged “fake encounter” killings by the Gujarat police since 2003 after it passed judicial orders on three such cases.

Those encounters already under investigation by the CBI or SIT as per Supreme Court or High Court orders will are not part of the judgement delivered today.

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