By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: The decision of Madhya Pradesh government for conducting a judicial probe of Bhopal encounter has been welcomed by the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Maharashtra with the exception of pre-decided appointment of retired High Court Judge S K Pandey to spearhead the investigation.
An official release issued late Friday night by MP government stated that the judicial probe will be conducted by retired High Court Justice S K Pandey.
“Justice Pandey will probe all aspects related to how SIMI activists escaped from the high security jail and the encounter that took place after that,” it said.
Reacting to this declaration, Hafiz Nadeem Siddique, President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Maharashtra raised questions over appointment of a particular retired justice who is known for believing in the RSS ideology.
“We welcome MP government’s decision of judicial probe but we want judges from other states in the committee so that impartial investigation may be conducted. Government has self appointed a justice to head the probe who is lenient towards RSS and therefore there is grave chance that the probe may favour RSS-backed MP government”, Siddique told TwoCircles.net.
In the presence of videos and audios that have gone viral in social media, it is evident that the encounter was fake and had taken place at the behest of government officials, he added.
“Jamiat would write a letter to MP government to add judges from other states and if our demand is not considered then we will take the matter to higher courts”, he said.
He further said that MP government is trying to cover up fake encounter and for that it has already started attempt to affect the investigation by announcing prize money to the eye witnesses.
“The government is trying to save its face by proving encounter to be genuine by offering money to witnesses and by appointing favorable justice for probe. Therefore for a fair investigation judges from other states should be included in the probe team”, he further added.
Khalid Machala, one of the killed suspected SIMI activists was being provided legal aid by the Jamiat and even after his death, Jamiat has decided to pursue the matter legally on the request of his aged mother Mahmooda Bi.