SC to hear on Aug 25 PIL seeking CBI probe into wanted criminal's encounter by UP Police
Aug 23, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 23 : The Supreme Court will hear on August 25, the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a fair, independent and impartial investigation into the alleged encounter of wanted criminal Rakesh Pandey in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow. The encounter took place on August 9.
A three-judge bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde and also comprising Justices V Ramasubramanian and A S Bopanna, will on August 25, Tuesday, hear the PIL filed by lawyer, Vishal Tiwari.
Tiwari had moved and filed the PIL before the apex court on August 9 with respect to the alleged encounter. He has sought a direction for a fair, independent and impartial investigation into the case and direction from the apex court for the probe by the CBI.
He also sought a direction that the FIR (First Information Report) should be registered for the offences under section 302 (Murder), 201 (Destruction of Evidence), 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the police officials who had conducted the alleged encounter of Rakesh Pandey.
Tiwari in his petition has urged the top court, to constitute a three-member enquiry commission to investigate the case in which the members shall be the retired judges of high courts and commission shall be headed by the retired judge of Supreme Court.
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) gunned down Rakesh Pandey, an accused in the 2005 murder case of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai, in an encounter near Sarojini Nagar Police Station in Lucknow, said Inspector General of Police (STF) Amitabh Yash.
A resident of UP's Mau district, Pandey alias Hanuman Pandey carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh. He was a wanted criminal and accused of many heinous crimes.
Rai, who was murdered on November 29, 2005, along with six other persons, was a sitting MLA from the Mohammadabad constituency.
The investigation of the case was transferred from UP Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In 2013, the Supreme Court transferred the case from Ghazipur to Delhi after Rai's wife Alka Rai filed a plea in the court.
In October last year, Alka Rai had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the acquittal of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and others in the case.
The CBI court while acquitting all the accused observed that it was a gruesome case involving the murder of seven persons. The eyewitnesses and other material witnesses had turned hostile during the trial.
