The Assam Police ‘had a very troubled past’ concerning staged gunfights, the court said.
The Supreme Court on Monday raised a question if the Assam Police was targeting a particular committee in the state through allegedly staged gunfights, Bar and Bench reported.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan also asked the state government why the police investigations in such cases are “slow.” The bench made the verbal observation while hearing a petition on deaths in allegedly fake gunfights in the state.
Arif Jwaddar, the petitioner in the case, alleged that over 80 staged gunfights had taken place in Assam since May 2021, when Himanta Biswa Sarma became the chief minister of the state, leaving behind the bodies of 28 persons killed and 48 injured in “fake encounters.”
Aggrieved, Jwaddar approached the Supreme Court after the Gauhati High Court rejected his public interest litigation.
“Are police personnel targeting a community?” Bhuyan asked the state government on Monday. Are they overstepping in their work? Petitions like this cannot be dismissed, saying it’s premature.”
He added: “This magisterial inquiry should not have gone on till now. It should hardly take 10 or 15 days. These incidents are of 2021 and 2022. It would be futile.”
“Whatever it may be, it cannot be said that encounter did not happen,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench. “State has a very troubled past. There are reports as well. You cannot deny that.”
