SC to hear on Aug 25 PIL seeking CBI probe into wanted Criminal's encounter by Police

The Apex Court will hear on Aug 25, the PIL filed by a lawyer seeking a probe by the CBI for a fair, independent & impartial investigation into the alleged encounter of wanted criminal Rakesh Pandey in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow. The encounter took place on Aug 9.

A 3-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by CJI S A Bobde & also comprising Justices V Ramasubramanian & A S Bopanna, will on Aug 25, Tuesday, hear the Public Interest Litigation filed by lawyer, Vishal Tiwari.

Tiwari had moved & filed the Public Interest Litigation before the Supreme Court on Aug 9 with respect to the alleged encounter. He has sought a direction for a fair, independent & impartial investigation into the case & direction from the Top Court for the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He also sought a direction that the FIR (First Information Report) should be registered for the offences under section 302 (Murder), 201 (Destruction of Evidence), 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) & other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the Police officials who had conducted the alleged encounter of Rakesh Pandey.

Tiwari in his plea has urged the SC, to constitute a three-member enquiry commission to investigate the case in which the members shall be the retired judges of high courts & commission shall be headed by the retired judge of Supreme Court.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) gunned down Rakesh Pandey, an accused in the 2005 murder case of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai, in an encounter near Sarojini Nagar Police Station in Lucknow, said Inspector General of Police (STF) Amitabh Yash.

A resident of UP's Mau district, Pandey alias Hanuman Pandey carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh. He was a wanted criminal & accused of many heinous crimes.

Rai, who was murdered on Nov 29, 2005, along with 6 other persons, was a sitting MLA from the Mohammadabad constituency.

The investigation of the case was transferred from UP Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In 2013, the Apex Court transferred the case from Ghazipur to Delhi after Rai's wife Alka Rai filed a plea in the Court.

In Oct 2019, Alka Rai had approached the High Court of Delhi challenging the acquittal of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari & others in the case.

The CBI court while acquitting all the accused observed that it was a gruesome case involving the murder of seven persons. The eyewitnesses & other material witnesses had turned hostile during the trial.

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