SC tags plea of Atiq Ahmed's sister with another petition seeking similar relief

New Delhi [India], June 30 : The Supreme Court on Friday tagged a plea by the sister of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed, who were shot dead while being in police custody in Uttar Pradesh on April 15, seeking a comprehensive probe headed by a retired judge or by an independent agency into alleged "extrajudicial killings" carried out by the government with another petition seeking similar relief.

A bench of justices AS Bopanna and Prashant Kumar Mishra tagged the petition with another similar petition. Sister of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed, who were shot dead while being 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 alleged "extrajudicial killings" carried out by the government.

The plea was filed by Atiq Ahmed's sister Aisha Noori, who also sought an investigation into the encounter killing of her nephew and Atiq Ahmed's son. Earlier a similar petition was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, who sought to constitute an Independent Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of a former Supreme Court judge to inquire into the killing of Atiq and Ashraf amid police presence.

She 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.

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 and 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 @ 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.

The plea also said that the Respondents-police authorities are enjoying the full support of the U.P. 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 the petitioner's family members and their associates.

The petitioners also sought to comply with the judgement 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.