Two PILs filed in SC seeking SIT probe into Telangana encounter

Two petitions were filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court seeking an SIT probe into the killing of four persons, arrested on charge of gangrape and murder of a veterinarian in Telangana, by police in an alleged encounter and compensation for their families.

While the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate M L Sharma said that the SIT probe should be monitored by former apex court judges, a separate petition filed by lawyers G S Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav said that independent investigation against concerned police officials should be conducted.

Sharma alleged that it was a case of "extra-judicial killings" and sought prosecution of policemen involved in the incident.

The PIL filed by Mani and Yadav claimed that the alleged encounter was "fake" and FIR should be lodged against police officials who were involved in the incident.

"The incident is a clear violation of Article 21 (right to life and fair trial) of the Constitution of India. A persons is innocent till guilt is proved," Sharma said in his PIL.

"However, in the present case, four persons have been declared guilty of gangrape without any trial...," the plea said.

Mani and Yadav, in their separate PIL, said that no one would support the accused who are involved in gang rape and murder cases against innocent women.

"However, an investigating agency and officers even at high level like Commissioner of Police taking the law into their hand, conducting fake encounter and killing alleged rape accused .... without bringing them before the court for punishment is very unfortunate," the plea said.

"No one including the investigating agency like police has right to punish any accused without due process of law. The court alone after applying all the procedure and law and affording an opportunity all the right of free and fair trial and hearing can impose punishment of imprisonment or death sentence," Mani and Yadav said in their PIL.

In his plea, Sharma said it is a killing in police custody and "therefore all the police officers involved" must be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with law after an SIT probe by CBI.

Besides seeking court-monitored SIT probe, the PIL filed by Sharma also seeks action against Samajwadi Party lawmaker and Bollywood actress Jaya Bachhan and Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal for alleged "provocation" and "pressuring police for extrajudicial killing of arrested persons in police custody without trial."
The plea, which may come up for hearing next week, also seeks compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of the four accused killed in the pre-dawn police encounter on Friday