Supreme Court declines PIL seeking CBI probe in Patna Police action resulting in death of BJP worker
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking CBI inquiry into the Patna Police action that allegedly resulted in the death of a BJP leader in Bihar.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta dismissed the plea as withdrawn while granting the liberty to the petitioner and intervenors to approach the Patna High Court with their grievances and prayers.
“Why not go before the High Court?,” the bench asked. The court further told senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for intervenors, that the High Court has enough powers to review over alleged police brutality.
The petition alleged that at the behest of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, a conspiracy was hatched by deploying a huge police force, including Rapid Action Force at Gandhi Maidan, Patna to ensure dispersal of the peaceful procession organised by the BJP party workers and leaders on July 13.
As per the plea, the police lathi-charge had resulted in the death of one Vijay Kumar Singh, an office-bearer of BJP Jehanabad district unit.
However, the district administration has said that the deceased died due to a heart attack. Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh has also claimed that Vijay Singh was not present at the protest site where police restored to lathi-charge to disperse the BJP protesters.
“Police deployed on Dak Bangla Chowk were under very specific instruction to cause danger to life and limb of the BJP leaders and workers, so that they may not reach Assembly House,” the plea alleged further.
The Teachers Recruitment Policy in the state government services was the core issue of protest.
Earlier, the state BJP chief Samrat Chaudhary along with other leaders of opposition parties handed over a memorandum to Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar demanding a CBI inquiry or probe by a sitting judge of the Patna High Court into the police action and the death of the party leader.