NRP Desk
Prayagraj: Allahabad high court has slammed police for not registering a mob lynching case under the relevant stringent BNS section 103(2) and directed UP govt to file a better affidavit within three weeks addressing compliance with Supreme Court’s guidelines on mob lynching case procedures. A division bench of justices Siddharth and Avnish Saxena, in its order on July 10, also stayed the investigation into the lynching of Shahedeen Qureshi (37) on suspicion of slaughtering cattle in Moradabad on Dec 29-30 last year until the next date of hearing on Aug 5. Shahedeen’s brother fil-ed a plea also seeking probe into the lynching by a special investigating team and Rs 50 lakh as compensation for the bereaved family. The counsel for the petitioner argued that the state had not implemented the mandatory safeguards out-lined in the SC’s Tehseen Poonawalla ruling, which was mentioned as remedial measures comprising prompt FIR, timely charge-sheet, and victim compensation. The HC noted that only the investigating officer had filed a counter-affidavit in the matter, while the state govt had not shown any steps taken in line with the binding di reaction’s of the apex court. The petitioner alleged that the state failed to formulate a lynching compensation scheme in compliance with the provisions of section 357A of CrPC, despite the explicit and binding direction in the Tehseen Poonawalla case. He also sought the court’s direction to UP govt to take disciplinary action against the police officials involved in the matter as per SC directions.
