Rejecting two petitions for a judicial inquiry or a SIT probe into the Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad’s, “encounter”, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the CBI to place before the chief judicial magistrate at Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh its investigation report, declaring the encounter as “genuine”.
Stating that there was no reason to doubt the “honesty” of the CBI in investigating the case, a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad disagreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan and social activist Swamy Agnivesh that the case needed fresh probe either through a judicial inquiry or by a special investigating team.
The CBI in its probe report had given “clean chit” to the AP police, which carried the encounter on intervening night of June 30 and July 1 under the supervision of Adilabad superintendent of police. Amidst heated arguments, which some times seemed more as “emotionally charged”, additional solicitor-general Harin Raval, appearing for the CBI, stated that the agency will file a “closure report” before the chief judicial magistrate Adilabad with all the relevant document, including “case diary”.
The investigation report would form the part of the closure report. While Agnivesh had filed a PIL for the CBI probe into the killing of Azad, Mr Bhushan had pleaded on behalf of Bineetha Pandey, the wife Hemchandra Pandey, a local scribe killed with Azad. But after the CBI had given “clean chit” to AP police team, both the petitioners had raised several questions on CBI report and sought fresh probe.