Gujarat ‘fake encounters’: SC asks head of inquiry panel if he shared report with other members
Former judge HS Bedi had submitted a report of the monitoring committee in a sealed cover in February.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the head of the inquiry committee that looked into alleged fake encounter cases in Gujarat if he had shared his final report with other members of the panel, PTI reported.
The top court had in 2012 appointed former Justice HS Bedi chairman of the monitoring committee investigating 24 encounter cases from 2002 to 2006 in Gujarat. The monitoring committee had submitted its report in a sealed cover in February this year.
The court was hearing a petition seeking to make the report public. The Gujarat government, however, has objected to putting the report in public domain, saying it was not clear whether the views in the final report were unilateral or if Bedi had shared it with members of the committee.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph asked Bedi to give his view on the questions raised in the Supreme Court. “Let the chairman confirm to us whether he had shared the final report with other members of the monitoring committee,” the bench said, while ordering that the final report be resealed in a cover. The court posted the matter for hearing in January.
Gujarat Encounter Killings: Supreme Court asks former Supreme Court Judge Justice HS Bedi to apprise the Court whether the report submitted by him on encounter deaths in Gujarat's between 2002 and 2007 was unilateral or was shared with other members of the monitoring authority
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) December 12, 2018
Journalist BG Verghese and lyricist Javed Akhtar had filed petitions in 2007 seeking an inquiry into the encounters. Verghese’s plea mentioned 21 such “encounters” and Akhtar’s made note of one. Verghese died in December 2014.
During the last hearing on December 3, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, had said the state be given either one or two weeks’ time to file its response to the report of the monitoring committee, but the court have him only seven days.