Bhopal: A first-time Congress MLA and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Arif Masood raised the issue of 2016 Bhopal central jailbreak and subsequent killing of eight operatives of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) by police in an alleged encounter, here on Monday.
After taking oath as newly elected member of Vidhan Sabha, the Bhopal-Madhya seat MLA Masood talking to media persons dubbed both jailbreak and the killing of the eight men in alleged police encounter as fake. “Entire episode, spanning from the early morning of the alleged jailbreak by the eight inmates to their killing by police in encounter on outskirts of Bhopal a few hours later on October 30-31 was nothing, but fake.
I’ve already filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking fresh probe by a sitting judge of High Court. I’ll now seek opinion of lawyers and if cleared by them, will raise the matter in the state assembly and demand fresh judicial probe,” said the legislator.
State home minister Bala Bachchan, when asked to comment on it, tried to play down the matter, saying “I’ll have to first take up the issue with chief minister Kamal Nath, only then I can tell journalists the government’s stand over the issue”.
“The one man judicial commission which probed the jailbreak-encounter killing submitted its report in 2017, which was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha in June last year. As the report has already been submitted, we’ll first have to take up the matter with CM,” the home minister maintained.
The two MLAs of opposition BJP, including Vishwas Sarang and Rameshwar Sharma (both legislators from Bhopal) dubbed the Congress MLA Masood’s statement as highly objectionable. “Such statements will not only boost the sentiments of anti-nationals, but also have a debilitating effect on the morale of the police force. We’ll protest any future move by the government to order fresh probe into the case,” the BJP MLA duo told journalists.
