Bihar Govt to pay compensation to Anurag Poddar's kin, SC dismisses state govt's petition

New Delhi [India], June 5 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Patna High Court's oral order directing the Bihar government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the father of 18-year-old Munger boy Anurag Poddar, who had died in an alleged police firing on the procession going to immerse the idols of Goddess Durga in October last year.
A division bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Indira Banerjee and comprising Justice M R Shah, dismissed today the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Bihar government challenging the state High Court order.
"We find no ground to interfere with the judgement (Patna High Court) and order in exercise of power under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The Special Leave Petition (SLP), is, accordingly, dismissed," the Apex Court bench said in its order.
The Patna High Court on April 7, had orally directed the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the father of 18-year-old Munger boy Anurag Poddar, who had died in alleged police firing on the procession going to immerse the idols of Goddess Durga in October last year.
The Patna High court had also threatened to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings in the case of non-payment of the compensation amount to the victim's family members.
Supreme Court had in January, this year, in the order requested the Patna High Court to decide the criminal writ petition filed by Anurag's mother, through her lawyer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, at an early date, preferably within two months, in connection with the brutal murder of 18-year-old Anurag Poddar.
A two-judge bench of the Apex Court, led by Justice (Late) Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Justice Ajay Rastogi, passed the order, after hearing the petition filed by Anurag's mother.
The petitioner further said that if the CBI investigation, as prayed for, is not ordered forthwith, then the same may lead to the destruction of vital pieces of evidence by the accused police personnel, which will ultimately lead to a gross miscarriage of justice.
The Supreme Court, however, had, in its order, although, refused to hand over the probe to the CBI or any independent investigation, said that "The writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty as sought for by the petitioner in the case."
Earlier, not seeing any ray of hope to get a chance of being heard the matter in the Patna High Court in the brutal murder of Anurag, his mother, through her lawyer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing and justice for her son.
Srivastava stated that Anurag was brutally killed on October 26, last year, in the police firing during Goddess Durga Idol immersion in Munger in Bihar. Despite the fact that more than two months had passed, not even a single person has been arrested or even named in the FIR filed in this regard.
In the last week of December 2020, the father of Anurag had filed a criminal writ petition in the Patna High Court, seeking CBI enquiry in the brutal killing.
Thereafter, his lawyer mentioned it twice for urgent listing before the Patna HC. However, their urgent hearing request has been declined by Patna High Court, citing "no urgency".
As of now the case was unlikely to get listed in near future in the High Court, thereby the mother of Anurag had filed the petition before the Supreme Court and sought an immediate hearing in the case.
The petitioner claimed that as per the eye-witnesses' account, her innocent and unarmed son was brutally killed in police firing on October 26, last year, by Bihar police personnel, without any provocation or warning.
This categorically depicts that the ongoing probe being conducted by the Bihar Police is only a sham investigation and is unlikely to render justice to the petitioner, Srivastava, appearing for the victim's mother said.
"Since the accusations are directed against the local police personnel, it is in the interest of justice to entrust the said investigation to an independent agency like, CBI, so that all concerned, including the relatives of the deceased, may feel assured that an independent agency is looking into the matter and that would lend the final outcome of the investigation credible," the petitioner said.
The petitioner further said that if the CBI investigation, as prayed for, is not ordered forthwith, then the same may lead to the destruction of vital pieces of evidence by the accused police personnel which will ultimately lead to a gross miscarriage of justice.
The brutal police firing by the Bihar Police on the petitioner's son and also on the innocent and unarmed devotees of Maa Durga on an unfortunate day has further utterly violated their constitutional right to freedom of religion, the petition said.
There was no warning given by the Munger police to the petitioner's son or to other devotees, before resorting to such a lethal attack. If there was some chaos, it could have been controlled by minimum use of force by the police, the petition claimed.