The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to direct the Uttar Pradesh government to file a supplementary chargesheet, naming more suspects identified by the complainants, in connection with the lynching of one Qasim Qureshi allegedly by cow vigilantes in Hapur last year.
The apex court said such a request could be made only before the trial court, which is already seized of the matter.
An apex court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose, however, disagreed with the plea of senior advocate V. Shekhar, appearing for the state government, that an eyewitness’s PIL alleging a botched-up police investigation be dismissed as the probe had been completed.
CJI Gogoi said the top court would not dispose of the matter at this juncture.
The bench asked petitioner Samayadeen, who claims to be an eyewitness to the murder of meat trader Qureshi, to approach the trial court over filing of a supplementary chargesheet.
In a fresh application filed through advocate Vrinda Grover, Samayadeen had sought a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to file a supplementary chargesheet on the basis of a magisterial submission made by Qureshi’s brothers Saleem and Nadeem, naming several other accused persons not arrested by the police.
On September 5 last year, the Supreme Court had directed the Meerut inspector-general of police to personally supervise the investigation into the Hapur lynching. It had passed the direction after going through a sealed-cover report submitted by the Uttar Pradesh government on the progress of the investigation.
Samayadeen had said a mob of “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors) had attacked him and Qureshi, 45, on June 18 last year, accusing them of killing a cow and trying to smuggle the carcass for sale.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the Meerut IG to take disciplinary action against erring police officers in the Hapur case in accordance with a July 17, 2018, directive in which it had passed directions to prevent rising incidents of lynching. The directives had mentioned that the police would be responsible for such atrocities.
