Mother of youth killed in Munger moves SC for urgent hearing

Patna (Bihar) [India], January 16 : After the Patna High Court turned down a request for urgent hearing, the mother of Anurag Poddar, 18, who was killed in Munger in Bihar last year, has moved the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing and justice for her son.
The mother of Anurag Poddar had moved the top court, through her lawyer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, by filing a writ petition and seeking an immediate hearing in the case in the SC.
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 inquiry in the 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 is 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 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 lethal attack. If there was some chaos, it could have been controlled by minimum use of force by the police, the petition claimed.