New Delhi, November 8
Unhappy over the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers were killed, the Supreme Court on Monday said it wanted to appoint a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to monitor it till filing of chargesheet in the case.
Asking senior advocate Harish Salve — representing the Uttar Pradesh government — to seek instructions on the issue, a Bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana posted the matter for November 12.
“It (probe) is not going the way we expected,” noted the Bench which also included Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli.
The top court — which had earlier asked the state government to provide protection to witnesses and wondered why there were only a few witnesses in the case where hundreds of farmers were present at the rally — posed several questions regarding the probe.
The top court made it clear that both incidents – mowing down of protesting farmers by a speeding SUV and the lynching of the accused allegedly by angry protesters – have to be taken to logical conclusion.
During the hearing, it noted that as per police there were 16 accused in farmer mowing down incident of which three were lynched.
“Why have you seized phone of one accused? Where have you said in the status report that the rest of the accused threw away their mobiles but the police have recovered CDRs,” it asked.
