Guwahati: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a plea concerning 171 alleged “fake encounters” in Assam between May 2021 and August 2022.
Tushar Mehta, representing Assam, informed the bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh about the Assam government’s strict adherence to the guidelines.
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These guidelines were set in the Supreme Court’s 2014 judgment in PUCL v. Maharashtra.
He stated that security personnel should face punishment if guilty, but if innocent, they should receive state protection.
He warned that unwarranted targeting of security forces might demoralize them, especially in such difficult operating conditions.
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Mehta also questioned the credibility of the petitioner, Arif Md Yeasin Jwadder, citing security threats and casualties among personnel.
“We do not know who this petitioner is or on whose behalf he seeks investigative details. He assumes that all encounters are fake while sitting in Delhi, yet no one has filed an FIR in these cases,” Mehta argued.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, responded by stating that an honest officer should not fear an independent investigation.
He argued that injured individuals and victims’ families testified that the encounters were staged.
Earlier in the proceedings, Bhushan questioned the Assam government’s adherence to the 2014 guidelines.
He pointed out that authorities filed FIRs against alleged victims, instead of the involved officers, which violated the prescribed procedure.
On February 4, the Supreme Court clarified that it would not evaluate the merits of the 171 encounters. It would only determine whether authorities followed the guidelines on extrajudicial killings.
Bhushan referred to letters from victims’ families and injured individuals as evidence of significant violations of the 2014 guidelines.
He also highlighted that authorities filed most FIRs in these cases against the victims. This violated the guidelines, which require authorities to register cases against culpable police officers.
The petitioner has challenged a January 2023 order from the Gauhati High Court, which dismissed a PIL concerning the encounters by Assam Police.
The high court cited an affidavit from the Assam government detailing 171 incidents from May 2021 to August 2022.
The affidavit revealed that 56 people died, including four in custody, and 145 sustained injuries.
On October 22 last year, Supreme Court called the situation “very serious” and requested details, including information on the probe.
In July 2023, the Court sought responses from the Assam government and other parties regarding the plea challenging the high court’s order.