NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today, April 18, agreed to hear a plea seeking a probe into the killings of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf.

The petition asked for guidance on how to organise an expert committee to look into the killings, which would be led by a former justice of the Supreme Court. On April 24, the case is scheduled for hearing.

In a petition to the Supreme Court, attorney Vishal Tiwari requested both an impartial expert committee and an investigation of the 183 encounters that have occurred in Uttar Pradesh since 2017.

On Saturday night, when Ahmad and his brother were being led by police officers to a medical college in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, for a checkup, three assailants—posing as journalists—shot them both to death.

The petition asked for guidelines to protect the rule of law by creating an independent expert committee with a former Supreme Court judge as its chairman and for an investigation into the 183 encounters that have taken place since 2017, according to the Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) for Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioner emphasised that "such actions by police are a severe threat to democracy and the rule of law and lead to a police state" while also calling for an investigation into the murder of Ahmad and his brother while they were in the custody of the police.

According to the argument made in the plea, unlawful deaths or fictitious police contacts are against the law. It was also asserted that in a democracy, the police cannot serve as a means of enforcing final justice because only the judiciary has the authority to punish.

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