On December 14, while hearing a petition, the local court in Uttar Pradesh summoned 11 police officers in connection with an 11-yr-old fake encounter case. The incident took place in 2007, in which a 23-year-old man from Manglaur in Uttarakhand was killed allegedly in a fake encounter.

According to The Times Of India, the summon was ordered following a plea filed by the mother of the deceased person. In the order copy, the court has asked the summoned police officers to appear before the court on January 25, 2019.

The police personnel who have been summoned by the court are ex-SHO of Patanpuri, a former constable Meer Hassan, Parveen Kumar, Sub-Inspectors Amir Singh, Iqbaluzam Khan, Sudhirpal Dhama, Naseem Khan, Ashok Kumar, Brijpal Singh, Sohanvir Singh, Megadin Singh along with police driver Jaseev Singh.

The incident happened years ago when the victim, Amjad Ahmad, a resident of Bijholi village in Manglaur, Uttarakhand was taken into illegal custody by Ratanpuri police. According to the prosecution, he was then made to stay in custody for two days and was later shot dead by the Uttar Pradesh police on February 1, 2007.

The mother of the victim, Akhtari Begum, told The Times Of India, that she has faith in the judiciary and almighty. She said that she is hopeful that finally, she will get justice. She added saying that my son was innocent and was taken into illegal custody by Ratanpuri police and was later shot dead by them.

Alleged fake encounter in the state

According to an RTI response, 1782 cases of fake encounters were registered in India between 2000 and 2017, out of which 1565 cases have been disposed of so far. As per data received from the annual reports of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Uttar Pradesh accounted for a surging 44.5 percent (794 cases) of the cases registered across all states.

After the Yogi-led BJP government came to power, there have been many reports of alleged encounters by the hand of the police in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, the NHRC had also issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the police after taking cognizance of reports of an alleged fake encounter in Muzaffarnagar.

As per the data, Uttar Pradesh, along with the five states including Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Manipur and Assam recorded the next highest number of fake encounter cases.

Also Read: NHRC Registered 1782 Fake Encounter Cases Between 2000-2017; UP Alone Accounted For 44.55%