HC asks UP police to file FIR with petitioner's version of 'fake encounter'

The Allahabad High Court has directed the senior superintendent of police (SSP), Jhansi to ensure that the FIR of a petitioner, whose husband was killed in a police encounter in 2019, be lodged with her version that the man was killed in a fake encounter.

The court has directed the SSP and the station house officers (SHOs) of the Gursahay and Moth police stations in Jhansi to ensure that the FIR of petitioner Shivangi Yadav be lodged with her version that her husband was killed in a fake police encounter.

Passing the order, the court directed that a copy of the FIR be placed before it on September 29, the next date of hearing in the matter.

The petitioner had requested the court to order the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct the probe into the killing of her husband, Pushpendra Singh Yadav, on October 5, 2019 in a fake encounter under the Moth police station.

In its order passed on Monday, the bench comprising justices Suneet Kumar and Syed Waiz Mian observed: "Having regard to the detailed order of this court on February 19, 2020, it will be in the interest of justice that the version of the petitioner that her husband was brutally killed in a fake encounter needs to be registered."

According to the petitioner, she had approached the SSP, Jhansi with an application on October 11, 2019 but an FIR was not registered.

The petition alleges that Pushpendra Singh Yadav was killed by police in a fake encounter and his last rites were performed in the absence of his family members to destroy the evidence of the fake encounter and save the officers involved in it.

It has also been alleged by the petitioner that documents related to the encounter and the death of her husband were not given to the family members.

The petitioner has also urged the court to direct the Uttar Pradesh government to refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).