PIL In SC Seeks Enquiry Into Murder Of Atiq Ahmad, Seeks Constitution Of Independent Expert Committee For Probe

A Public Interest Litigation has been moved before Supreme Court seeking Judicial Enquiry into the murder committed during police custody on April 16, 2023, of the gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf. The plea seeks the constitution of an independent expert committee headed by a former Supreme Court Judge to probe the matter and further look into the alleged 183 encounters done by the U.P. Police since 2017.

The petition moved by Advocate Vishal Tiwari states that the Uttar Pradesh Police has tried to become dare-devils and highlights the violation of rule of law and oppressive police brutality being perpetrated by the State of Uttar Pradesh. The plea further highlights the encounter killing of Atiq Ahmed's son Asad by the police and then the killing of the duo brothers by private assailants.

Highlighting the extra-judicial killings / fake police encounters, the plea states that "in a democratic society the police cannot be allowed to become a mode of delivering final justice or to become a punishing Authority and the power of punishment is only vested in the Judiciary." Further, it has been stated that when the police become daredevils then the entire Rule of law collapses and generates fear in the mind of people against the police which is very dangerous for democracy and results in further crime.

The petitioner-in-person submits that Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf were in the custody of the U.P. Police and the state had the duty of providing the highest safety to both the accused. However, they were killed by private assailants posing as media persons and during the commissioning of the offence there was no protection or retaliation by the Police which questions the transparency. The plea alleges the killing to be a pre-planned attack with no redressal for the accused.

The petition also states the report of the Dr. Hon’ble Justice BS Chauhan Commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe into the encounter killing of Vikas Dubey by U.P. Police to be not at all satisfactory and bereft of definite justification and conclusion to reach the particular end. "...there remains nullity and vagueness in the Commission’s report and till date there has been no constructive high level probe pertaining to the legality of the encounter being done at Kanpur in the killings of Vikas Dubey in 2020" reads the petition.

The plea further states that the gangster-turned-politician had recently moved the Supreme Court seeking protection of life when he was being transferred from Sabarmati Gujarat jail to Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioner has prayed for the following directions in his petition:

I. "Issue writ of mandamus/directions in the interest of justice and to unearth the fake encounters by directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate, collect and record the evidence in Kanpur Bikru Encounter case 2020 in which Vikas Dubey and his aides were killed by police in encounter as the inquiry commission could not record the evidence in rebuttal of police version and has filed the inquiry report in absence of that."

II. "Issue of guidelines/directions to safeguard the Rule of law by constituting an Independent Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Former Supreme Court Justice to inquire into the 183 encounters which had occurred since 2017 as stated by Uttar Pradesh Special DirectorGeneral of Police (Law and Order) and also to inquire into the police custody murder of Atiq and Ashraf gangster turned politician."

Cause Title: Vishal Tiwari v. Union of India and Ors.