The Border Security Force, which has remained out of controversies related to “fake encounters,” on Tuesday came under the Supreme Court scanner with it issuing notices to the Union ministry of home affairs and BSF DG on a PIL levelling serious charges of fake encounters against the force.
Notices were issued by a bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar on a PIL filed by a private human right body from West Bengal — Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Manch — raising the charge of fake encounters against BSF and seeking a thorough probe into those.
The top court asked the MHA and BSF DG to submit reply affidavit in response to the notice on PIL, which claimed that the force had been “involved” in more than 200 cases of extra-judicial killings in West Bengal, where it guards the border with Bangladesh. The check period for probe mentioned in the petition ranged about the complaints filed between 2005 and 2011. “This petition pertains to the cases of torture or extra-judicial executions of more than 200 Indian nationals by the BSF between 2005 and 2011,” advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the NGO, alleged. He even claimed that there were “direct eye-witnesses” in at least 100 cases.