A Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli expressed dissatisfaction with the Uttar Pradesh Police probe and mixing of witnesses in different FIRs in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. The investigation is "not going the way we expected", the Bench said.
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It asked senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government to take instructions from the government on the appointment of a former High Court Judge from a different state to oversee the probe and posted the matter for hearing on Friday.
"...to ensure that evidence in FIR 219 (mowing down of farmers by a vehicle) is recorded independently from FIR 220 (lynching of accused) and there is no overlapping and no intermixing, we are inclined to appoint a retired judge of a different High Court to monitor the investigation. Somehow, we are not confident of the state judiciary overseeing... Let a retired judge of different High Court monitor it," the Bench said.
Salve said he would get instructions from the state government regarding this suggestion of the Supreme Court.
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Justice Kant suggested the names of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain or Justice Ranjit Singh, former Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to oversee the probe. It also declined to hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation saying "the CBI is not the solution to everything".
During the hearing, the Bench expressed concerns that the case against the prime accused relating to mowing down the farmers being diluted by clubbing the investigation with the counter-case of mob lynching. The Bench said that the investigation in both cases must be separate and the statements of witnesses in both cases must be recorded independently.