Supreme Court refuses petition on SIT probe
The violence continued and as such around 5000 people are affected and they are forced to live under fear of insecurity.
New Delhi: Refusing to grant early hearing on a PIL seeking probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the Saharanpur riots in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the matter to be listed for hearing in July after the summer vacation.
The petitioner, Gaurav Yadav, an advocate, sought direction to the Uttar Pradesh police to provide protection to villagers to prevent migration from the villages due to feeling of insecurity also wanted the state to pay compensation to all those who died and sustained injuries, whose articles were burnt and stolen from their houses during the riots.
A vacation bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha told the counsel for the petitioner that there is no urgency for hearing and posted it for listing in July.
The petitioner related to gross violations of the human rights and fundamental rights, right to life, right to property and the right to basic dignity of the peoples of the dalit community living in villages of Saharanpur. Due to repeated attack from the upper caste Thakur community, they have been forced to leave their houses for their safety and security and shifted to safer places.
The petitioner alleged that the local administration and police played biased role, intoxicated with castiscism feeling and miserably failed to control the violence and not taken stern action against the perpetrators, who committed violence fearlessly and threatened life and liberty of innocent persons. He said around 30 to 40 people are still missing and people have left their villages. The violence continued and as such around 5000 people are affected and they are forced to live under fear of insecurity.
It is pertinent to mention that the police did the lathi charge on innocent people and around 100 villagers sustained injuries but cases are not registered against the perpetrators who have burnt the houses and looted the valuable articles after trespassing in their houses.
The local administration did not value the damage and losses of the victims and no rehabilitation made or no compensation given to the victims, it appears that the police will not conduct fair, impartial, independent investigation in Saharanpur riot case and culprits will not be brought to justice, he said and prayed for a SIT probe.