Slain SIMI activists' lawyer demands HC-monitored probe

A lawyer, who represented eight SIMI activists killed in an encounter on October 31, today demanded a high court-monitored inquiry and termed as "mockery" the Madhya Pradesh government's order of judicial probe into the incident.
"It is baffling that the culprit of the encounter, which is the state government, has chosen its own investigator to probe its serious crime," said Parvez Alam, who represented the slain SIMI activists facing terror cases.
"This is a sheer mockery of democratic and judicial system. The state government, instead of requesting the MP High Court to order a judicial inquiry into the cold-blooded murder, has itself appointed an investigator, which is against the natural justice," Alam told PTI.

He said that the state government should have moved the MP High Court and waited for it to name a sitting or retired judge to investigate the fake encounter.
"We are going to petition the High Court for a judicial probe. We want the probe to be monitored by the High Court and it (probe panel) should have lawyers of both sides--the government and the deceased," he added.
Meanwhile, when asked if he had received any written communication from the government asking him to start judicial inquiry, the retired MP High Court judge S K Pandey said, "I don't have any information (yet)."

The MP Government announced judicial probe by Justice Pandey three days ago after the alleged encounter came under severe criticism. Home Minister Bhupendra Singh had till then maintained that no judicial probe into the encounter was necessary.
Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced a NIA probe into the jail-break during which the fleeing SIMI activists allegedly murdered a head warden.