BHOPAL: The tenure of the single-member judicial probe commission, headed by judge AK Pandey and constituted by the state government to investigate into the death of eight SIMI activists in an encounter with the state police, is ending on January 31. Though the tenure of the Commission is near completion but the general administration department (GAD) has not yet framed its service conditions.
It is the GAD, which decides the service conditions whenever a judicial probe commission is setup. The service conditions include facilities, office and staff.
The state government had announced magisterial probe into SIMI under-trials encounter incident. The government had also constituted a committee, headed by retired DGP Nandan Dubey to probe the Bhopal jail break. Amidst heavy pressure, the government, five days after the encounter, had announced setting up of judicial probe commission.
In the absence of a decision on service conditions of the Commission, it is clear that the government intends to allow the probe to linger on. Questions were raised at the national level on the role of jail authorities and police officers when the said encounter took place. A proposal to extend the tenure of the Commission for a period of three months has been prepared, which would be submitted in the cabinet soon.
