Gujarat govt’s plea to keep ex-judge’s report on fake encounter confidential rejected by SC

New Delhi, Jan 9: In a setback for the Gujarat Government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected its plea to keep confidential the report submitted by Justice H S Bedi on the 22 alleged cases of fake encounters in the state between 2002 and 2006.

The Gujarat government had sought to keep the report confidential, but the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi directed that copies of the same be handed over to the petitioner. The court has also sought a report in four weeks time.

The Bench said that it was yet to accept the report, but added that it would decide on the same after hearing both parties.

The petitions were filed by veteran journalist, B G Verghese and lyricist, Javed Akhtar. They alleged that the case relating to the 22 encounters must be heard by the Supreme Court.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had intervened and said that the Justice Bedi report on the 22 fake encounters must not be made public. This needs to be dealt with a sense of responsibility, he added.

In March this year, the Supreme Court appointed committee had submitted its report in the court. The committee was appointed to probe alleged fake encounters in Gujarat between 2002 and 2007.

The court had asked the committee to look into whether the encounters showed a pattern that people from the minority community were targeted as terrorists.

The panel was set up after Akthar, Verghese and activist Shabnam Hashmi moved the court seeing a judicial probe against the Gujarat government.