Uttar Pradesh: SC orders hearing on 17 encounter cases by Yogi govt, calls it a “very serious matter”

There is bad news for the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has set the date, February 12 for hearing the petitions filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Citizens Against Hat (CAH), on 17 disputed encounters in the state and the Supreme Court stated that it is a very serious matter which requires a detailed hearing.”

The Yogi government is being cornered on these disputed encounters. Four human rights experts of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on January 11, had organised a press conference in which they said that they have sent detailed information about the 15 disputed encounters to the Indian government and they are waiting for the government’s response.

In this regard, V Suresh, General Secretary of PUCL, a human rights organisation, told NH that his organisation has collected and submitted all the documents in the court related to the 17 fake encounters that took place under Yogi Adityanath’s government. The fact is that all the FIRs that have been registered in these encounters are just copies of each other. That means most of these encounters took place in the same manner. This exposes the story of forgery in itself.

PUCL has raised the question on this issue and has exposed all the flaws. But the state government is not ready to hear anything about it. Several investigative reports have been published in this regard and the Uttar Pradesh government has been criticised on many international forums. Investigative journalist Neha Dixit's reports on these encounters document various facts. The Supreme Court mentioned in its order that this is a very serious matter.

Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan said that the Uttar Pradesh government was not ready to take any cognizance of the issue of encounters and was trying its best to cover up the matter. Now with so much of pressure, the matter has at least reached the stage of hearing. The case of the 17 fake encounters cannot not be suppressed now.

It is important to note that on January 11, four human rights experts of the United Nations issued a statement saying that they have written to the Indian government about the 15 encounters in Uttar Pradesh and have demanded answers in this regard.

This caused a stir. PUCL had filed this petition in July last year, in which 1100 encounters in Uttar Pradesh during the period of 2016-17 have been mentioned, in which 49 people were killed and 370 injured.

It is also mentioned in the petition that on July 17, 2017, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath clearly said, “either put the criminals in jail or kill them.” Since then there have been a series of encounters in Uttar Pradesh.

National Herald, Navjivan and Quami Awaz have published the stories highlighting the loopholes and flaws of these encounters. The human rights organisations raised serious issues on these encounters which questioned the authenticity of these encounters.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan says that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is investigating these 17 encounters and the Supreme Court should order the NHRC to present its report to the court.