In a significant legal development, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the regular listing of a writ petition that demands the registration of an FIR against key district officials, including the District Magistrate (DM) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Sambhal, over allegations of their involvement in recent violent incidents.
The bench, which comprises Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Syed Qamar Hasan Rizvi, passed the order in the absence of legal representation to argue the matter, even though it had been called again. Additional Advocate General Manish Goel and Government Advocate A.K. Sand were present in the court, representing the state.
The petition was filed by the Hazrat Khwajah Garib Nawaj Welfare Association, which holds the mentioned officials responsible for the violence and the deaths of four individuals due to alleged police firing.
This legal action follows closely on the heels of another petition related to the Sambhal violence, which was dismissed by the high court just a day earlier. In that instance, a division bench consisting of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Gautam Chowdhary rejected a plea for an independent investigation into the police’s alleged atrocities after the counsel decided not to pursue it, citing the state government’s decision to establish a judicial inquiry commission.
The state’s response to the violence, which broke out on November 24 following a contentious survey of the Mughal-era Jama Mosque by a team led by an advocate commissioner, includes the formation of a three-member judicial commission. This commission is composed of retired High Court Judge Devendra Kumar Arora, retired IAS officer Amit Mohan Prasad, and retired IPS officer Arvind Kumar Jain, tasked with probing the incidents thoroughly.
