You can't kill people with steel plates, says SC lawyer Tulsi

Describing the encounter killing of eight SIMI terrorists as "fake", senior supreme court lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi has urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to leave no stone unturned in probing the matter.

"NHRC should go into this matter because you can't kill people with steel plates and you can't scale a 20 foot high wall merely with bed covers unless there is some inside hand involved," Tulsi told ANI.

Highlighting the seriousness of the case, Tulsi argued that the video clearly showed it was a fake encounter.

"It seems like it was an inside job, managing their escape from the jail," he said.

Yesterday, the NHRC sent notices to the chief secretary, the director general of police, the director general of prisons, the inspector general of prisons and the Government of Madhya Pradesh to submit detailed reports on the incident within six weeks.

"The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that eight SIMI under trial prisoners, who escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail were killed in an encounter with police in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on October 31," the statement read.

The commission observed that it has been concerned about the prisoners' deaths in police and judicial custody.

The rights commission also issued specific guidelines and conveyed to all the States/UTs for compliance in the matters of encounter.

According to a report, the under trial prisoners escaped from the jail after killing a guard. They were charged with various crimes, including murder, sedition, jail break and bank robberies. All prisoners were killed within hours of their escape in an isolated forested area about 15 kilometers from the jail.

Five jail officials have been placed under suspension including DIG (Jail) and the Jail Superintendent. The Additional DG (Jail) has reportedly been transferred.