Four days after eight SIMI men, who escaped from the central prison here were killed in controversial police action on Monday, the Madhya Pradesh government bowed to opposition demand and ordered a judicial probe into the incident.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered the probe, to be conducted by retired High Court Judge, Justice S.K. Pandey, an official release issued late on Thursday night said.
The purported audio tape about the encounter will also be part of the overall investigation, a senior police official said. The tape, which has gone viral on social media, states that the policemen on job were getting instructions from control room to “bump them off” and “ khel khatam ho gaya ” (game is over now).
The State government had earlier announced a probe by an SIT comprising CID officers, into the encounter and a separate investigation by former DGP Nandan Dubey into the jailbreak but the Congress and other opposition parties had pressed for a judicial probe.
The BJP government, led by Mr. Chouhan, has vociferously defended the police action and accused the opposition of “politicising and communalising” the issue. The party on Friday said the judicial inquiry has been ordered as the State government had nothing to hide.
The family of Maharashtra-born Khalid Ahmed Muchale, among the eight slain SIMI men, has approached the police seeking to file a case of murder and criminal conspiracy against MP Home Minister and DGP, besides the Bhopal jail officials, for the alleged encounter. Khalid’s 61-year-old mother Mehmooda on Thursday submitted a complaint application to MIDC Police in Solapur seeking action against MP Home Minister Bhupendra Singh and others alleging that her son was “murdered“.
