Mathura violence: Supreme Court to hear plea for CBI inquiry today

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Tuesday a PIL filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhy-aya, BJP spokesperson, for a CBI probe into the Mathura violence in which 24 people were killed and several injured in clashes between the UP police and members of Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah.

A vacation bench of Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitav Roy listed the matter for hearing on a mention made by counsel for petitioner. Mr Upadhyay said what happened in Mathura could not have happened without the help of the Samajwadi Party government, which is destroying evidence of the incident. He said the CBI must take over the probe immediately to find out the root cause of the incident and the nexus among the Executive, Legislature and the extremist group.

The PIL said two police officers and 22 squatters were killed in an armed conflict at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura city on June 2. The squatters, an armed group, who were led by Ram Vriksh Yadav, once a follower of Jai Gurudev, had been occupying the site since 2014.

Ram Vriksh Yadav was running a parallel government, complete with administration, revenue and armed forces within the park. It is believed by local residents that Yadav was very close to some of the ministers of the UP government which is why the local administration was unwilling to act against him.

After the high court ordered their eviction, the police tried to forcibly evict them. The squatters responded violently, killing two police officers.

The group has no direct connection with the Indian nationalist leader Subash Chandra Bose. Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi is a self-proclaimed revolutionary group, which demands a complete overhaul of the British-inspired political system, including abolition of the top posts such as Prime Minister and President. He said the Union Government is ready for CBI enquiry of the Mathura incident but Government of Uttar Pradesh is not recommending. Hence this writ petition in larger public and national interest.