Read Time: 08 minutes

Synopsis

Sister of slain Uttar Pradesh's gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, his brother Mohd Ashraf has filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking comprehensive inquiry by a Commission headed by a retired judge of the top court into "custodial and extra judicial" killings of her family members and associates.

Aisha Noori, a resident of Meerut, has also sought orders for probe into alleged "vicious, unlawful and arbitrary" campaigns of encounter killings, arrests and harassment of her family members by the Uttar Pradesh government.

She has claimed the UP government and its officers "are responsible for the deaths of her brothers, Khalid Azim alias Ashraf and the late Atiq Ahmad; as well as other members of the family - all of which occurred just a few days apart from each other. 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 family as part of a vendetta".

Referring to Article 21 of the Constitution, the plea states that it casts a positive procedural obligation on State authorities to effectively investigate into the custodial deaths of the petitioner's family members. 

"The purpose of such an investigation is to ensure the effective implementation of the guarantee of life and liberty under the Constitution and to ensure that wherever State agents and bodies are involved in any case of extra-judicial killing, they are held accountable for the same regardless of their standing and rank," it stated.

Noori has further contended that a piecemeal inquiry which only looks at singular encounters/killings that have taken place during the campaign would fail to bring home the responsibility of the higher authorities who are ultimately responsible for killing the Petitioner's family members. 

Furthermore, it would centre the blame for the deaths on the officers present on the spot in each case rather than the authorities who are responsible for authorising, planning and coordinating such acts, her plea stated.

The petitioner has claimed that deaths are connected parts of a "vicious and unlawful campaign by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to seek retribution for the deaths of two police officers namely Sandeep Nishad and Raghvendra Singh who were killed along with Umesh Pal in the unfortunate incident of February 25, 2023".

Former Phulpur MP Atiq and his ex-MLA brother were killed in police custody on April 15 at Prayagraj by three shooters, disguised as media persons, when they were being taken to a hospital for medical checkup.

Atiq’s son Asad was also shot dead by a special task force (STF) team during an encounter in Jhansi on April 13.

Dealing with a PIL by advocate Vishal Tiwari, the Supreme Court had on April 28 directed Uttar Pradesh government to bring on record steps taken as well as inquiries initiated into the killings of Atiq and his brother Ashraf.

Atiq's sister, in her plea, claimed that the very fact that six persons, who are named as accused in the FIR with regard to murder of Umesh Pal, a witness, have all either been killed by the UP police in so-called "encounters" or have died in police custody is "sufficient to infer that the Government of UP is treating itself as judge, juror and executor in the Umesh Pal murder case".

"It is pertinent to note that under Indian criminal law, the death sentence is reserved for the rarest of rare cases and can only be awarded according to procedure established by law. The role of the police is to investigate crimes and not that of executioners," her petition states.

The petitioner has claimed the state government has granted full impunity to the police and in fact encouraged the police to resort to encounters a normal mode of law enforcement in the State. 

"Unless a comprehensive inquiry is carried out by an independent agency which can hold to account high-ranking officials of the UP government who have planned, coordinated, and executed the campaign against the petitioner's family - the government will not be deterred in continuing with and launching further such unconstitutional campaigns," her plea stated.