NEW DELHI: The SC on Wednesday asked the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to inquire into 171 alleged incidents of fake encounters carried out by state police in 2021 but said barring a few incidents the PIL petitioner’s claim about fake encounters appeared to be speculative.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh disposed of a petition by an advocate Arif M Y Jwadder and said, “We direct the AHRC to issue a public notice inviting all individuals who claim to be aggrieved (victims and their family members) by the alleged police encounters to come forward and furnish relevant evidence.”Allowing AHRC to select team of police officials unconnected to the encounters for further inquiry into some cases if the need be, the bench said “fair and impartial inquiry” is a right of citizens aggrieved by police action and expected AHRC to adopt robust measures akin to witness protection protocols to safeguard the privacy, safety and security of those participating in the inquiry process.The state, in its counter-affidavit had said that out of a total of 171 cases, chargesheets have been filed in 125 cases, forwarding reports submitted in 23 cases, and remaining 23 cases are under investigation. Writing the judgment and examining the allegations of the petitioner, Justice Kant said that he has failed to independently place on record any cogent or verifiable material to substantiate the allegations.Justice Kant said, “After minutely scanning such data, prima facie it seems that barring a few cases, it is difficult to infer that there has been a procedural breakdown, or the guidelines (relating to encounter inquiry) were flagrantly violated. ” Referring to the status report relating to each FIR furnished by Assam, the bench said, “These documents prima facie belies the (petitioner’s) claim of inaction and do establish that, at least at the foundational level, the criminal process was duly initiated.“
