Patna, Jan 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Supreme Court has asked the Patna High Court to decide about the pending CBI inquiry into the Anurag Poddar murder case within two months.
Anurag Poddar (18) was killed in alleged police firing at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Chowk in Munger during Maa Durga idol immersion on October 26, 2020.
A writ petition was filed on behalf of his father in the Patna High Court seeking a CBI inquiry in the case.
Alakh Alok Srivastava, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, told IANS, "With almost three months having gone by, there is no headway in this case to bring justice to the family of deceased. The Patna High Court on January 8 said that there is no urgency required in this case."
"Hence, we have approached the Supreme Court in this matter. On January 25, it asked the Patna High Court to decide about the CBI probe within two months," he added.
Referring to the media reports, Srivastava alleged that local police pressurised eyewitnesses to turn hostile. "An eyewitness was booked under the Bihar Liquor Prohibition Act after he refused to step back from his stand," Srivastava said.
After that incident, the Bihar government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Asangba Chuba AO, divisional commissioner of Magadh range, to investigate this case. The government had given just a week's time to submit the report.
"I must say that the investigation is making shoddy progress in a bid to end this case and save all the alleged police officers and civil administrators," Srivastava said.
Asangba Chuba AO didn't respond to the calls when he was tried to be contacted.
"Munger police had fraudulently taken the signature of the 55-year-old mother of the deceased on a plain paper and registered an FIR against unknown persons on October 31 under IPC sections 302 and 34 and 27 of the Arms Act. We learnt that not a single person has been arrested so far. This categorically shows that the ongoing investigation being conducted by the respondent Bihar government is only a sham and is unlikely to render justice to the petitioner. If the case will not get transferred to CBI, there is a good chance that vital pieces of evidence will be destroyed," he said.
"As per eyewitness, the deceased was innocent and unarmed on October 26, 2020 when a policeman Sushil Kumar Singh and others fired several rounds on innocent devotees during Maa Durga idol immersion and one of the bullets hit the deceased, killing him on the spot. It was alleged that policemen were firing at the devotees without any provocation. The cops did not give any warning to them," Srivastava said.
Srivastava mentioned the CISF internal report wherein it was said that the officers of Bihar police opened fire at the devotees of Maa Durga.
"Following the incident, Election Commission of India had transferred then Munger SP Lipi Singh and DM Rajesh Meena to some other place. Prima facie, it appeared that Singh was found guilty of excessive use of force against the devotees," he said.
Source: IANS
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