Lyricist Javed Akhtar and others on Monday said they will move a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court against the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat for an alleged fake encounter in which a suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad militant was killed in 2002.Akhtar, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi told a press conference in New Delhi they would file the PIL in the Supreme Court to secure justice for the family of one Sameer Khan, whom Gujarat police claimed was a militant of the Pakistan-based militant outfit.
"It is high time for a Constitutional review of the right to kill a person in the name of an encounter. We have decided to file a PIL in the Supreme Court," Akhtar said referring to the Sameer Khan case.
Khan, alleged to be a JeM militant who had gone to Pakistan for training, was killed in a police encounter in 2002. Human rights activists have alleged he was killed in a false encounter and not while fleeing from the police.
"There were around 14 so-called encounters during the last two years. Interestingly, all the deceased were said to be terrorists who were here to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi," Hashmi said.
"The Sameer Khan investigation by the media points clearly to the fact that a cover-up was crafted by the state government," Bhushan said.
The Modi government is already facing flak in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case in which former Deputy Inspector-General of Police D G Vanzara is one of the prime accused.
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