INDIA’S TOP COURT ASKS WHY ATIQ AHMED, BROTHER WERE PARADED BEFORE MEDICAL CHECKUP

Fri 28 Apr 2023:

The Supreme Court on Friday, April 28, sought a status report from the Uttar Pradesh government on the steps it has taken after the gangster and former MP Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf’s murder while in police custody, and has categorically asked its attorney why the duo was paraded in front of the media and not taken straight to the hospital gate in an ambulance.

On April 15, the duo was shot dead by three men who were apparently posing as journalists during a media interaction late in the night while they were being taken by the police to the Motilal Nehru Divisional Hospital at Prayagraj for a “routine medical check up” at 10:30 pm.

A bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who was appearing for the state, “We have seen the video footage…why were they not taken to the entrance…why were they paraded?”

The court further asked how the duo’s assassins knew they would be taken for a medical checkup that night and also the location of the hospital where they would be taken. In his reply, Rohatgi told the apex court, “Police custody requires them to be brought for medical examination every two days… They (assailants) we learnt, had been coming there three days in a row.”

Rohatgi also tried to justify the custodial death of the duo by highlighting that Atiq’s son Asad too was killed in a police encounter just a day before and that the family was “embroiled in heinous crimes.”

“The State sought to link the murders with the family’s criminal past,” reported The Hindu, adding, “Mr Rohatgi said an Inquiry Commission with two former High Court Chief Justices and another judge has been constituted by the State. A Special Investigation Team has also been formed to probe the murders.”

The two-judge bench of the SC then directed the state government to file a comprehensive affidavit within three weeks, including details on the steps taken to inquire into the killings of Atiq, his brother, son and another associate just a few days apart in mid-April.

The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari with a plea for an inquiry into not just the Atiq murder but also each of the 183 ‘encounters’ that have taken place in Uttar Pradesh since 2017, when Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister. On April 28, Tiwari, who is also the advocate in the case, said there was a “pattern” to these deaths and therefore the court should form an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. He underlined that the present commission was formed by the State whose role is under question in the case.

The bench said the state government should file an affidavit on record within the next three weeks, adding, “If there is a pattern, we may ask the Commission to look into it along with other sample cases.”

The SC heard the case on April 28 as the Chief Justice of India, four days ago, rescheduled it stating that five judges had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and the court was functioning with a reduced number of judges.

-The Wire

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