News Analysis India

Tag: judicial probe

  • Lakhimpur violence: No arrest so far, state govt forms judicial probe panel

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With no arrest so far in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, the state government constituted a single-member judicial commission, appointing a retired judge of Allahabad High Court, to conduct a probe into the issue as promised to the protesting farmers.

    Eight persons — four farmers, three BJP workers, and a journalist — lost their lives during the violence which broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday. Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra has been named as the main accused in the FIR lodged by the district police on the basis of the complaint given by the protesting farmers. 

    Meanwhile, the cremation of the deceased was completed on Wednesday. The state government wanted all the cremations to be completed and the tempers to cool down within 48-72 hours before allowing visits of politicians to Lakhimpur.

    Bodies of three were cremated on October 5, while the other was cremated on Wednesday morning in Bahraich after the second post-mortem was completed under the supervision of a special panel of doctors sent from Lucknow. However, after the second autopsy of Gurvinder Singh of Bahraich, no bullet injury was found. The post-mortem report said he died of trauma and haemorrhage.

    ALSO READ | Lakhimpur violence: Amid calls for resignation, Ajay Mishra meets Amit Shah

    Meanwhile, Additional Director General (law and order) Prashant Kumar told reporters that the demands of the farmers were met and ex-gratia of Rs 45 lakh were given to the kin of each deceased person, and Rs 10 lakh to those seriously injured along with a job to one family member was also announced.

    Moreover, orders had also been given for a judicial probe of the entire incident, said the ADG. He claimed that a local committee was also formed under the leadership of Additional SP of Lakhimpur Kheri, one helpline number, and one email had also been issued so that anyone who wants to share any evidence can do so with us, the person’s identity would not be revealed.

    “The last post-mortem and last rites were done as per the religious traditions of the three dead bodies on October 5. One body was sent for a second post-mortem to Bahraich by a special team of doctors as the family members of the deceased were not satisfied with the first post mortem. The local administration had restricted the movement for maintaining law and order in the district, but now people are allowed to go in groups of five persons. The state government wants to maintain the peace and hence some restrictions were put,” he added.

    On the question of summoning UP minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish for questioning, the ADG said, “This was a very sensitive issue and with the help of local officers’ free, fair and thorough investigation will take place. Action will be taken against the culprits,”  said the ADG.

  • What else they can do for face-saving: Shah on Kerala govt ordering judicial probe against central agencies

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the Kerela government does not have any other option left other than ordering a judicial inquiry against the central agency probe into Kerala gold smuggling scam for “face-saving”.

    Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Shah said, “What else they can do for face-saving? They don’t have any other option after their principal secretary has been arrested in the gold scam.”

    “It is their natural reaction. I’m not surprised,” he added.

    The Kerala Cabinet on Friday recommended a judicial probe against central investigation agencies subject to approval from the Election Commission, following an ongoing probe into several cases, including the Kerala gold smuggling case. The decision was taken at a virtual cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

    The Kerala gold smuggling case, which is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA,) along with the Enforcement Directorate and the customs department, pertains to the smuggling of gold in the state through diplomatic channels.

    The matter had come to light after 30 kilograms of gold worth Rs 14.82 crores, smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage, was busted by customs in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5 last year. The customs department had also arrested Unitac Builders MD Santhosh Eappen also in a US Dollar smuggling case.  

  • BJP demands judicial probe into Chhattisgarh shelter home case

    By PTI
    RAIPUR: The BJP on Sunday demanded a judicial inquiry into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of women inmates of a shelter home in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district.

    The manager of the shelter home, run by an NGO and aided by government, was arrested on January 21 for allegedly raping an inmate, while three other staffers were held on Saturday on charges of physically assaulting women living at the facility.

    “An impartial investigation into the allegations is possible only when a judicial panel will be set up to conduct a probe into it as the role of police is already in question in the case,” Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Dharamlal Kaushik told PTI.

    Hitting out at the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh, the BJP leader said it is a “very shameful situation” that sexual and physical exploitation of women is taking place in a shelter home monitored by the state government.

    “The inmates have made revelations before a magistrate that the women who were staying there were not only subjected to sexual harassment, but were also sent out for prostitution. They were also brutally thrashed and stripped and locked in a room there,” Kaushik claimed.

    He demanded that the state government constitute a judicial commission for a probe into the case.

    Kaushik said the role of police in the case should also be investigated as the victims have alleged that when they went to a police station for registering complaint of sexual abuse, the police did not take cognisance of it.

    The case against Ujjawala Home, operated by NGO Shri Shivmangal Shikshan Samiti, came to light on January 17 when some of its staff members allegedly did not allow a 20-year- old woman to leave the facility when her husband came to take her back home.

    The man then forcibly took his wife and reached Sarkanda police station where they lodged a case of wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt and obscene acts against the shelter home staff.

    Two other women inmates also went the police station and alleged physical and mental abuse of women at the shelter.

    They were also made complainants in the case, a police official earlier said.

    On January 19, the women complainants approached the media, alleging that one of them was sexually assaulted by the shelter home’s manager and other inmates were physically tortured by the staff.

    The complainants recorded their statement before a magistrate on January 21 following which the shelter home’s manager was arrested, the police said.

    Later, another woman also alleged that she and other inmates were physically assaulted by the shelter home staff.

    The police subsequently apprehended three women staff members on Saturday, a police official said.

    A government official said the shelter home has been closed and seven of its inmates have been shifted to their homes and other government facilities.