Atiq's sister moves SC, seeks probe over "encounter killings" of brother

NEW DELHI: Sister of the gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed, who were shot dead while in police custody in Uttar Pradesh on April 15, has moved the Supreme Court seeking a comprehensive probe headed by a retired judge or by an independent agency into the alleged "extrajudicial killings" carried out by the government.

The plea filed by Aisha Noori also seeks an investigation into the encounter killing of her nephew and Atiq Ahmed's son.

She has sought a comprehensive inquiry by an independent agency into the campaign of "encounter killings, arrests, and harassment" targeting her family being carried out by the government of Uttar Pradesh.

The plea stated that an independent probe into the "custodial and extra-judicial killings" was necessary to catch high-level state agents who have planned and orchestrated the campaign to kill her family members.

In the plea, she apprised the court about the incident and called it state-sponsored killings. It sought a comprehensive inquiry by a committee headed by a retired judge of the top court or in the alternative by an independent agency into a campaign of extrajudicial killings carried out by the respondents.

"The respondents are responsible for the deaths of the petitioner's brothers, the late Khalid Azim alias Ashraf and the late Atiq Ahmad; as well as other members of the Petitioner's family all of which occurred just a few days apart from each other," she said in the plea.

The plea also said that the respondents-police authorities are enjoying the full support of the UP government which appears to have granted them complete impunity to kill, arraign, arrest, and harass members of the petitioner's family as part of a vendetta.

The petitioner highlighted the fact that the deaths of the petitioner's family members and other persons are connected parts of a vicious, arbitrary, and unlawful campaign by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. In the absence of such a comprehensive and independent inquiry, the rights of the Petitioner and her family members under Article 21 of the Constitution would stand violated because Article 21 of the Constitution casts a positive procedural obligation on State authorities to effectively investigate the deaths of the petitioner's family members.

The petitioner sought to issue direction causing a comprehensive inquiry by an independent agency into the campaign of encounter killings, arrests, and harassment targeting the petitioner's family being carried out by the Government of Uttar Pradesh and to direct the Respondents to comply with the directions issued by the top court while investigating into the custodial and extra-judicial deaths of Petitioner's family members and their associates.

The petitioners also sought to comply with the judgment of the top court and to register FIRs for the offences under Sections 302, 201, 120-B and 193 of the Indian Penal Code against police officers who conducted the alleged encounters leading to the deaths of the petitioner's family members and their associates.