The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Gujarat government a week to file an affidavit in response to an inquiry report on 22 alleged fake encounters that took place in the state between 2002 and 2006, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister, PTI reported.
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.
In 2012, the Supreme Court formed a monitoring committee led by former judge HS Bedi to investigate the encounters. The court had asked the Gujarat government, which was led by Modi at that time, to extend full cooperation to Bedi. The court had asked the panel to look into whether the encounters showed a pattern that people from the minority community were targeted as terrorists.
In court on Monday, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi noted that Bedi’s committee had submitted its findings already – as reported by ThePrint earlier this year. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, intervened against making the report public. Mehta wanted time till after Christmas to file a response, but the top court gave him only seven days to submit an affidavit on the report, reported India Legal.
The case will be heard next on December 12.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story said the Supreme Court had issued the instruction to the Centre.
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