SC Appoints Ex-Punjab & Haryana HC Judge To Monitor Lakhimpur Kheri Case Probe
Mumbai: The Supreme Court has appointed Rakesh Kumar Jain, former Punjab & Haryana High Court judge to monitor the investigation of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident “to ensure transparency, fairness and absolute impartiality”.
The court has also appointed three senior police officers (including a woman officer) to handle the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident in Uttar Pradesh, in which four farmers and a journalist were killed. , when a BJP leader’s car was hit by a car. A mob of protesting farmers, following which three BJP workers were lynched to death in retaliatory violence.
The top court will hear the matter again after the charge sheet is filed and the status report is filed by Justice Jain.
The Supreme Court had said in the last hearing on Monday that it would confirm which retired judge would be appointed after talking to potential candidates, including Justice Jain, to oversee the investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the state of Uttar Pradesh, had said that he would be happy to appoint any retired judge, even one who was not from UP – the bench was earlier only on retired judges of the state.
The bench also expressed concern about the composition of the task force appointed to probe the incident, in which four protesting farmers and a journalist were seen falling from the car of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. There was retaliatory violence in which there were three BJP workers.
The court was also informed by counsel for some petitioners that the chief of the Special Investigating Team had allegedly been transferred without the permission of the court, a matter it said it would take up at Wednesday’s hearing.
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