Bhopal SIMI encounter: Judicial commission serves notice to jail authorities
The 8 SIMI men had allegedly broken the Bhopal Central Jail during the intervening night of October 30 and 31.
The judicial commission, appointed to investigate the Bhopal jailbreak and the subsequent encounter of 8 SIMI suspects, served a notice to the Bhopal Central Jail asking the authorities to explain the circumstances under which the incident took place.
The 8 men had allegedly broken the Bhopal Central Jail during the intervening night of October 30 and 31 and all of them were gunned down in an encounter about 15 km from the jail, just a few hours later.
The case so far:
1. Bhopal Police had tried to justify the encounter by saying the 8 under trials had first opened fire and were killed in retaliatory fire.
2. The MP Anti-Terrorist Squad chief had gone on record saying that all of them were unarmed just minutes after the encounter.
3. A lot of questions were also raised on the authenticity of the encounter after videos of the encounter surfaced.
4. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan too publicly declared the eight men as dreaded terrorists, even though he was later forced to change his words when they were called under trials in the notification issued for appointment of the judicial commission to probe the entire incident.
5. The commission is headed by retired High Court judge, Justice SK Pandey and it has been mandated to submit its finding within three months.
6. The commission has also started recording statements of police officers who were involved in the encounter.