Human rights activists here have demanded for CBI probe into the alleged police encounter death of five bank robbery suspects, considering the ‘gravity of the situation,’ and said the incident has resulted in racial profiling of north Indian migrants and students.
"There are apprehensions that this could be a fake encounter as no information is being revealed. Five persons have been killed and considering the gravity of the situation, a CBI probe should be ordered for," Prof A. Marx, People's Union for Human Rights (PUHR), said.
Marx was part of a 'fact-finding team' that visited the site of the encounter, which took place on February 23 at Velachery and held some inquiry.
Since the victims hailed from Bihar, north Indian migrant labourers and students were facing racial profiling as police were singling them out for inquiry, he said.
Further, Chennai Police Commissioner J. K. Tripathy and 13 other cops should be booked for murder, they demanded.
Branches of Bank of Baroda and Indian Overseas Bank here were robbed of Rs 19 lakh and Rs 14 lakh on January 23 and February 21 respectively.