The Supreme Court Friday sought response from the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking a CBI probe into the death of a Kanpur-based businessman in which six policemen have been charged with murder.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna issued notice to the Centre and UP government and sought their response. The bench posted the matter for further hearing after the Diwali break.
Advocate Amit George, appearing for the widow of the businessman, said that just after the incident, there was a press release by the office of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying the government would recommend a CBI probe. Till now CBI has not registered the case nor there is any investigation going on by the SIT constituted by the state government. Not even crime scene recreation has been done till now, he said.
The bench said it is issuing notice in the matter. Manish Gupta (36) died in a Gorakhpur hotel during a police raid. He was staying along with two friends in the hotel.
Police had earlier denied the charge and said he received a head injury after he fell on the ground as he was drunk. On September 29, a case of murder has been registered against six policemen involved in the raid. The policemen booked for murder include J N Singh, Sub-Inspector Vijay Yadav, and Phalmandi police post-in-charge Akshay Mishra, Gorakhpur DM Vijay Kiran Anand said.
The authorities had suspended the policemen, including the Ramgarh Taal SHO, and handed over the probe to the superintendent of police (city). In her plea filed through advocate Anand Shankar, the widow of the deceased has said that her husband's death was a cold-blooded murder in a hotel room at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, by certain local police officials. She said that her husband was on a visit to Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh in the last week of September 2021 and had accordingly checked into the Krishna Palace Hotel which fell with the jurisdiction of the Police Station Ramgarh Taal.
On September 27, certain police officials from the Police Station, namely the Station Officer Jagat Narayan Singh, Sub-Inspectors Akshay Mishra, Vijay Yadav, and Rahul Dubey, Head Constable Kamlesh Yadav, and Constable Prashant Kumar arrived at the hotel in the late hours of the night. In a shocking display of high-handedness and police brutality, they proceeded to viciously assault the petitioner's husband, leading to his death.
It is noteworthy that the factum of brutal violence and torture having been inflicted upon the petitioner's husband was confirmed upon post-mortem of the dead body by the post-mortem report, the plea said. She alleged that she was even pressurized to not mention any name of police officers and further dissuaded by high officials of the local administration and the police from taking legal recourse under the shocking rationale that a proceeding in a Court would take years and years.
However, much to the agony and grief of the petitioner, the CBI has not assumed charge of the investigation till the date of filing of the present petition, even though as on date a period of almost three weeks has already elapsed from the date of the official announcement, she said in her plea.
She said that aggrieved by the lack of initiation of appropriate action for the assumption of charge by the CBI, the petitioner has even addressed a representation to the CBI and the concerned officers of the Government of Uttar Pradesh through email, related to the CBI probe as per the recommendations made by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh to register the FIR and carry out the desired investigation to prevent the possible destruction of evidence and ensure that the accused does not escape the hands of justice.
She said that in this case, influential and well-connected local police officials are themselves complicit in the ghastly act of murder, significantly increasing the chances of the destruction of evidence and providing avenues for the accused to escape the hands of justice.
The petitioner has no faith in the investigation being carried out by the SIT considering the status and power of the accused persons and the overt actions undertaken by the local administration and police authorities to shield them initially, before ultimately grudgingly succumbing to public pressure and calls for accountability. Accordingly, the Petitioner most respectfully prays that the investigation of the present matter concerning the aforesaid ghastly incident be taken over by the CBI, the plea said.
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