The Supreme Court on Monday decided to urgently hear a plea to order a CBI enquiry into the “root cause” of the Jawahar Bagh violence in Mathura. Two senior police officers and 22 civilians lost their lives when armed squatters resisted attempts by the police to remove them.
A Bench of Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy posted the hearing for Thursday. The plea alleged a “nexus among the Executive, Legislature and the extremist group” behind the squatters. “The Centre is ready for CBI enquiry into the incident, but the U.P. government is not recommending it,” said the petition.
Compensation
The petition wanted the apex court to order CBI enquiry into the June 2 clash. It also wanted a direction to the government to frame a uniform policy for compensation. Ms. Jaiswal sought an urgent intervention, alleging that evidence was being destroyed.
The two police officers, the Superintendent of Police and a Station House Officer, were killed when they went to evict the squatters on the orders of the Allahabad High Court. The squatters were occupying the park since 2014 under the leadership of Ram Vriksh Yadav, once a follower of Jai Gurudev.
The petition accuses Yadav of running a parallel government within the park, complete with administration, revenue and armed forces.
The members of the cult comprised individuals belonging to organisations variously named Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi, Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, the petition said. Locals believed Yadav was very close to some U.P. Ministers, which was why the local administration was unwilling to act against him, it alleged.