MP: Families of 8 slain SIMI activists to move HC; no probe needed, asserts state HM Bhupendra Singh

A day after eight SIMI activists were killed in an alleged police encounter following a daring prison break from Bhopal Central Jail, their families have decided to approach the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking a CBI probe into what they dubbed as "cold-blooded murders".

"The families of the deceased have come to me and are weeping inconsolably for justice. We are going to move the MP High Court for a CBI probe into the entire incident," lawyer Parvez Alam said.

"It is surprising that the authorities are claiming that the accused climbed the 32 feet boundary wall of the jail. Is this possible?" he asked. Police have claimed that the accused from the banned outfit were killed on 31 October in an encounter, hours after they escaped from the high-security Central jail where they had slit the throat of a security guard and scaled the wall using bedsheets between 2 am and 3 am.

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Alam described the encounter as "fake" and said, "The TV grabs show the police and ATS firing. There is no evidence that the accused fired. This is a fake encounter and (these are) cold blooded murders," Alam claimed. He said Inspector General Yogesh Choudhary had last night told the media that the accused made keys to open their lock up with tooth brushes.

"Can someone open the keys of high security Bhopal Central Jail that has earned an ISO certificate with keys made of tooth brushes," he wondered. "What lie these authorities are speaking," he said.

"Our first course of action after the funeral of the accused killed in the encounter is to move the HC for justice," he added.

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The Congress party has also asserted that the encounter is 'fake' and urged the Supreme Court to step in and assign a retired judge to investigate the matter.

"I saw the photographs on television and they do bring suspicion. They make us think that was that encounter fake? Because it seems quite difficult to imagine that eight people at a time were killed by the police at the same place together. This matter should be investigated and the Supreme Court should assign this matter to a retired Supreme Court judge to probe the matter and clear all doubts," Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told ANI.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister M on 1 November has stressed that there was no investigation needed in the matter adding that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will only probe how the activists escaped from Bhopal Central Jail yesterday.

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"No investigation needed, police has provided all the necessary information. NIA will only investigate their connections. NIA will investigate how SIMI terrorists (SIC) escaped, there is no need for any investigation on the encounter," Singh told ANI.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijju also came out in the support of the MP police saying there is a need to stop the "habit" of questioning the police and authorities.

The Madhya Pradesh Police has also defended its action of opening fire on the SIMI activists saying that the escapees were neutralised in 'retaliatory' fire and that the suspects have been continuously perpetrating serious offences.

-With inputs from agencies