GUWAHATI: The Gauhati high court, on Wednesday, reserved its verdict on a public interest litigation (PIL) related to alleged fake encounters in Assam.
The petitioner argued that FIRs has been lodged against the victim and not against the police personnel as mandated in the PUCL judgment.
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The Assam government, in its latest updated affidavit, has stated that 171 incidents of police firings and four custodial deaths have taken place in the state.
However, the petitioner argued before the Court that independent investigations have not been done as mandated under the PUCL vs the state of Maharashtra case.
He further stated that only magisterial enquiries were done in 92 incidents, FSL tests were done in 48 incidents and ballistic tests were done in 40 incidents.
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Petitioner claimed without complete FSL and Ballistic how could an independent investigation be done.
Activist and lawyer, based in Delhi from Assam – Arif Jwadder, the petitioner, who had filed the PIL, sought an inquiry into the encounters by an independent agency like the CBI, SIT or any police team from other states under the supervision of the Court.
Besides the Assam government, state DGP, law and justice department, national human rights commission and Assam human rights commission have been named as respondents in the PIL.
According to the petitioner, the dead or the injured person were not militants and it cannot be the case that all the accused could snatch a service revolver from a trained police officer.
On hearing both sides, the special division bench of justice Suman Shayam and justice Susmita Phukan Khaund reserved the judgement.