The Supreme Court directed the Patna High Court on Monday to expeditiously hear a writ petition, which sought probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader while taking part in a protest march against the Nitish Kumar government in Patna.
While dismissing the petition, the Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta observed that the High Court was equally competent to issue the directions sought by petitioner Bhupesh Narayan.
The Bench granted liberty to the Bihar resident to approach the High Court, noting that the High Court was capable of granting the relief sought by the petitioner, if it was satisfied.
The Apex Court further observed that certain prayers seeking such relief which could not be granted by the High Court warranted the interference of the Apex Court.
However in the present case, the High Court could call higher authorities and seek explanation, noted the Bench, stating that the power of judicial review over alleged police brutality was not limited to the Supreme Court.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani contended the family of the deceased was not even given his post-mortem report.
He requested the Bench to issue some directions for expediting the hearing before the High Court.
However, the top court of the country said that it could not set a timeline for another constitution court to decide a matter.
The matter pertained to the death of
BJP leader Vijay Singh, who died while taking part in the ‘Vidhan Sabha March,’ held in protest against the teacher recruitment policy of Bihar government.
Leaders of the saffron party had alleged that the Jehanabad resident died in a brutal lathi charge by the police.
However, the district administration in Patna had issued a statement saying that they did not find any injury marks on the body of Singh.
The petition filed by Narayan requested the Apex Court to either constitute a special investigating team (SIT) headed by a retired apex court judge to probe the incident or direct investigation by CBI.
The petitioner accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Bihar Director General of Police, among others, of shielding the real perpetrators behind the incident, which took place during the ‘peaceful procession’ organised by BJP.
As per the plea, the agitators were suddenly surrounded by police in a pre-planned manner. It alleged that police used lathi charge, water cannon and tear gas shells to disperse the crowd, which resulted in a chaotic situation.
Drawn by Advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, the petition alleged that the brutality and atrocity by police resulted in Singh’s death.