The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed an earlier direction that required the Maharashtra government to form a Special Investigation Team consisting of senior police officers from both Hindu and Muslim communities to investigate an assault linked to the 2023 Akola communal riots, Live Law reported.
Hearing the State’s review petition, a bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria issued notice and ordered that the controversial paragraph of the judgment be put on hold “for four weeks,” noting that the matter needed reconsideration.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State, urged the Court to stay the direction, arguing that “neither the accused nor the complainant can choose the investigating agency,” and citing the Divine Retreat Centre precedent to support his contention.
The stay comes days after a split verdict by Justices Sanjay Kumar and S.C. Sharma on the Maharashtra government’s review plea. Justice Kumar had strongly defended the earlier order, observing that the inclusion of both communities in the SIT was meant to “ensure transparency and fairness” in a case with “a communal colour,” and stressing that “secularism needs to be actuated in practice and reality.”
Justice Sharma, however, took a different view and issued notice on the review, signalling that the directive required further examination.
The communal violence that broke out in Akola in May 2023 after an allegedly objectionable social media post about Prophet Muhammad.
One man, Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad, was killed, and the respondent, 17-year-old Md Afzal, was seriously injured.
Afzal said he witnessed four men assaulting Gaikwad with weapons, and when he stopped at the spot, he too was attacked and his vehicle burned.
Although he claims his statement was recorded at the hospital, he alleges the police “never registered an FIR” and instead pursued a biased investigation that targeted Muslim men rather than the real perpetrators.
The Maharashtra Police denied recording his statement, saying he “was not in a position to speak.”
Afzal later approached the Court seeking action against “erring officials” and a fair investigation into his own assault.
The September 11 order directed by Justice Kumar, now stayed, had instructed the Home Secretary to set up a communal-composition SIT and take disciplinary action against officers found negligent for what it called a “patent dereliction of duty.”
The Supreme Court’s latest order temporarily halts these directions as the review petition proceeds.
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