05 November,2016 08:16 AM IST | | Agencies
Days after eight SIMI men who escaped from the central prison here were killed in controversial police action, the Madhya Pradesh government has ordered a judicial probe into the sensational jail-break and the alleged encounter giving into the opposition's demand
Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Pic/AFP
Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Pic/AFP
Bhopal: Days after eight SIMI men who escaped from the central prison here were killed in controversial police action, the Madhya Pradesh government has ordered a judicial probe into the sensational jail-break and the alleged encounter giving into the opposition's demand.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered the probe, which will be conducted by retired High Court Judge Justice SK Pandey, an official release issued late Thursday night said. "Justice Pandey will probe all aspects related to how SIMI activists escaped from the high security jail and the encounter that took place after that," it said.
Protesters in Kolkata hold placards during a protest against the killing of 8 SIMI members. Pic/PTI
The purported audiotape about conversation related to the encounter will also be part of the overall investigation, a senior police official said. The tape, which has gone viral on social media, states that the policemen on job were getting instructions from control room to "bump them off" and "khel khatam ho gaya" (game is over now).
The purported conversation took place on the day of the encounter. The state government had earlier announced a probe by an SIT comprising CID officers into the encounter and a separate investigation by former Director General of Police Nandan Dubey into the jailbreak but Congress and other opposition parties had been pressing for a judicial probe.
The BJP government led by Chouhan has vociferously defended the police action and accused the opposition of "politicising and communalising" the issue. The party yesterday said that the judicial inquiry has been ordered as the state government has nothing to hide.
