Simi encounter: Madhya Pradesh CM blinks, orders judicial inquiry

Succumbing to pressure from several quarters, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a probe on Friday by a retired high court judge into the jailbreak by eight suspected Simi men and their subsequent encounter killing here on October 31.

Mr Chouhan said retired Madhya Pradesh high court judge S.K. Pandey would probe the whole incident and submit his report within six months.

The decision comes in the wake of the incident turning murkier day by day as video and audio clips of the encounter surfaced.

The Opposition Congress said the chief minister, who was adamant initially on not ordering a judicial probe into the incident, had to give in owing to mounting pressure from all sides to come clean on the issue.

“The chief had no other option but to give in to demand for a judicial probe due to mounting pressure from all quarters to come clean on the matter. He has earlier declared to go for NIA probe, then ordered a probe by a former DGP and later announced a magisterial probe...,” Congress’ Pankaj Chaturvedi said.

The chief minister has made a mess of whole thing by going for probe by multiple people”, MP Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said.

“Had it been a probe by a sitting judge of supreme court or a high court, all suspicion surrounding the jailbreak and the subsequent encounter killing incident would have been cleared. Still, we are hopeful that the judicial probe ordered by the chief minister would uncover the truth”, Vinod Choubey, a civil right activist here said.

Counsel for the slain SIMI suspects, Parvez Alam however said a probe committee headed by a sitting judge of high court to investigate into the incident.

Other members of the committee should be from legal section- a lawyer represented by the slain SIMI men and another independent advocate- a member from ruling party and Opposition party each.