Four days after eight SIMI members fled from Bhopal Central Jail and within hours were gunned down on the outskirts of the city, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered a judicial probe into the episode.
However, the activists from different organizations are not ready to accept this judicial probe and are insisting on their demand of probe by an independent commission under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
The Opposition Congress right from the day of the incident was demanding a judicial probe into the incident.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered the probe, which will be conducted by retired High Court judge Justice SK Pandey, an official release issued here late last night said.
"Justice Pandey will probe all aspects related to how SIMI activists escaped from the high security jail and the encounter that took place after that," it said.
Reacting to the announcement of the probe, Congress spokesman JP Dhanopia said, "Our stand is clear right from day one on the issue that the probe should be conducted by a sitting High Court Judge. The same demand was also made in the petition filed in the High Court on the issue."
The purported audio tape about conversation related to the encounter will also be part of the overall investigation, a senior police official said.
The tape, which has gone viral on social media, states that the policemen on job were getting instructions from control room to "bump them off" and "khel khatam ho gaya" (game is over now). The purported conversation took place on the day of the encounter and it was recorded and released on social media.The State Government had earlier announced a probe by an SIT comprising CID officers into the encounter and a separate investigation by former Director-General of Police Nandan Dubey into the jailbreak but the Congress and other Opposition parties had been pressing for a judicial probe.