Bhopal: Eight members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who had escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail in October 2016, were shot dead by the police near here. The judicial probe into the encounter has given a clean chit to police saying “death of escaped persons was inevitable and reasonable in prevailing circumstances”.
“The use of force resulting in the death of the escaped persons was quite inevitable and quite reasonable under the prevailing circumstances,” the judicial commission concluded in its report tabled in the Madhya Pradesh assembly today. The state government had appointed a single member judicial commission to probe the sensational jailbreak and the subsequent alleged encounter killings. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry was headed by retired high court judge S K Pandey. The action of the police was in consonance of the provision of law under sections 41 and 46 (2)(3) of the CrPC,” said the report.
“The Department of Jail has no institution of its own to impart an effective training to its officers and staff. On the lines of state of Punjab, the state government should endeavour to provide a training institute to the Department of Jail,” the report said.
The eight SIMI activists, who were undergoing trial, had pulled off an audacious escape from the high-security jail on the intervening night of October 30-31 after killing a guard. They were gunned down in the reported encounter by police on the city’s outskirts on the morning of October 31.
Siasat Web Team