Officers investigating the killing of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri last month should be ‘upgraded’, the Supreme Court bench said on Monday, and requested a list of officials.
Justice Surya Kant pointed out that most officers in the task force are from “Lakhimpur only”, the Bar and Bench reported. Chief Justice NV Ramana said the team should be upgraded with higher-level officials.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government agreed to the Supreme Court suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SIT’s probe on day-to-day basis into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.
The bench said that it will have to take the consent of the judge concerned and will consider names of even former apex court and high court judges for monitoring the probe in the sensational case and pronounce the same on Wednesday. “We are considering former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Rakesh Kumar Jain, or others,” the bench said.
While consenting, senior advocate Harish Salve said that the state has no issues with the apex court appointing a former judge of its choice to monitor the probe, but the point that he should not be a native of Uttar Pradesh should not bear in the mind as the person concerned is a relevant factor.
The apex court, on November 8, had expressed dissatisfaction over the probe and suggested that to infuse “independence, impartiality and fairness in the ongoing investigation, a former judge of a different high court should monitor it on day-to-day basis.
The bench had also said that it has no confidence and does not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the state to continue probe into the case.
Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
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