The Supreme Court was apprised by the petitioners that the Justice HS Bedi-led Monitoring Committee report had marked foul play in three cases out of a total of 17. It added that the police officers identified in the Report must be prosecuted.
The report pertains to pleas relating to fake encounter killings allegedly carried out by the Gujarat Police during 2002-2007.
The Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta after hearing the matter adjourned it by 2 weeks.
During the hearing, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta reiterated an earlier stance that the petitioners were targeting a particular State (i.e. Gujarat) for alleged encounters in a particular span of time.
The SG stated that public interest cannot be ‘selective’ and petitioners must explain the same.
The petition at present was been filed by late journalist BG Verghese (since expired) along with poet-lyricist Javed Akhthar and social worker Shabnam Hashmi, who cast aspersions that the encounters were fake and stage-managed.
The Supreme Court, in 2012, had appointed Retd. Justice HS Bedi, a former Supreme Court judge, as the Chairman of a Monitoring Committee to monitor the investigation carried out by the Special Task Force (STF) in relation to the encounter killings.
In 2018, Justice Bedi submitted a sealed cover report to the court. Overruling the objections of the government, the court directed that the report be made public.
As per the report prima facie evidence of foul play was found in 3 out of 17 cases, which is of Kasam Jafar, Haji Ismail and Sameer Khan, and recommended prosecution of 9 police officers involved in the cases.
A Supreme Court Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had observed that it remained to be seen whether any directions were required to be passed by the court following the report of the Monitoring Committee.
On this aspect, Justice Sandeep Mehta said another similar petition was coming up with respect to Uttar Pradesh.