Mathura violence: No CBI probe, says Supreme Court

Lucknow: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea demanding a CBI probe into the recent violence in Mathura, which left at least 29 people dead and several others injured.

The order was passed by a vacation bench of justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy. The bench had had yesterday listed the matter, filed by lawyer and Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, for hearing today.

Justice Amitav Roy observed that the matter is pending at the Allahabad High Court and the petitioner was bypassing the matter through this PIL.

While refusing the plea, the court said it is a right of the state government to recommend a CBI probe and even the Centre cannot order a CBI probe on its own. "The order for a CBI probe cannot be a matter of routine," the court observed.

Justice Amitav Roy observed that there is no statement in the petition which shows deficiency in investigation or lacking in effort on part of the Uttar Pradesh government.

The petitioner's advocate had sought an urgent hearing, saying the CBI probe is necessary, looking at the gravity of the violence. The petitioner said, the court may also take suo motu cognizance of the matter and direct the CBI enquiry, as it is necessary to find out the truth.

In the first major fallout after the Mathura clashes, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday shunted out the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Mathura even as it dismissed BJP's charge that there was political pressure on police to not evict encroachers from Jawahar Bagh.

District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar has been put on the wait list and has been replaced by Special Secretary PWD Nikhil Chandra Shukla.SSP Rakesh Kumar Singh has been replaced by SP Jalaun, Babloo Kumar, an official statement said.

 

 

In its report to the Union Home Ministry, the state government rejected BJP's charge that there was political pressure on police to not evict encroachers from Jawahar Bagh park and said the recent violence there was the result of the failure of local authorities.

Links to Naxals have not been ruled out given the quantity and type of weapons used by Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi - an outfit that claimed to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

The development came days after violence had erupted in Mathura on June 2 during an operation to evict members of a religious group 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi' from government land.

 

 

Meanwhile, the Congress appealed to the Akhilesh Yadav led-Uttar Pradesh Government to form a special team under the supervision of the High Court and run a fair trial in the recent Mathura violence, saying the CBI does not need to intervene right now as it will only delay the investigation.

It also came to light that Uttar Pradesh government had disregarded 40 intelligence reports indicating presence of a large number of licensed and unlicensed firearms inside Jawahar Bagh – the site of the deadly clash.