SIMI encounter: MP govt puts on hold cash reward for cops

Bhopal, November 5

Madhya Pradesh Government has put on hold cash awards it had announced for policemen who gunned down eight suspected operatives of the Student Islamic Movement of India.

The state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently announced a judicial inquiry as it battles opposition’s questions over what it calls an encounter killing.

"After the announcement of judicial probe into the incident, the government cannot give cash rewards to anyone till the completion of the inquiry," a highly-placed official said.

"The cash rewards were announced before the judicial probe was announced and therefore, it is logical that it can not be given till the inquiry gets over," the official said.

Chouhan had announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh to each policeman involved in the October 31 shootout. 

Opposition and rights activists however have called the incident to question, putting the government on defensive. 

"The government should at least wait till the completion of several inquiries it has instituted to probe the encounter to justify the reward," Abdul Jabbar, a social activist, had said. "It (the reward) cannot be justified till the probe is complete and all questions raised on the issue are properly addressed."

Eight men suspected to be members of the outlawed SIMI were gunned down on the outskirts of Bhopal the city after they escaped a high-security prison. The inmates killed a policeman as they made their escape.

A Public Interest Litigation in Madhya Pradesh High Court two days later demanded a judicial inquiry into the entire incident, after both opposition and activists called to question the government’s official version of the story.

A video of the “encounter” site showed a policeman shooting at a body from a close range after some unidentified person pulls out what appears to be a knife from a plastic cover and puts it back in.

In an audio of a supposed conversation regarding the incident, policemen were heard receiving instructions from the control room to “kill them all”.

A retired high court judge, SK Pandey, will conduct the judicial inquiry. — PTI