Contradictions have emerged over the death of eight SIMI men, who were gunned down in an alleged encounter with the police on the outskirts of the Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail killing a security guard.
Questions cropped up after television channels showed footage purportedly from the encounter site in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after some unidentified person takes out what appears to be a knife said to be in a plastic cover and places it back.
According to reports, the encounter took place with the help of local villagers, who first sighted the SIMI men.
According to eyewitnesses, the terrorists' hurled stones on the villagers and police before being gunned down in the encounter.
The differing stand taken by administration officials on the sequence of events that led to the encounter further raised eyebrows.
IG Yogesh Choudhary said the fleeing SIMI activists had weapons in their possession and opened fire when confronted and the police fired in retaliation, in comments that appeared to contradict Home Minister Bhupendra Singh's statement.
He said four country-made guns and some sharp-edged weapons were recovered from the SIMI cadre.
"There was heavy firing from the other side (activists) and they were killed in retaliatory fire. Three policemen received injuries from sharp weapons. Police opened 45-46 rounds of fire," told a media briefing after questions were raised over the genuineness of the encounter.
Chaudhary repeatedly maintained that all questions raised over the encounter were a matter of investigation as the series of events over seven hours between their escape and killing were still being probed.
The slain activists, Chaudhary said, were dangerous criminals who were involved in the killing of two constables in Khandwa and elsewhere in 2008 and 2011. Besides, three of them were involved in an earlier jailbreak in Khandwa in 2013.
Asked about a video purportedly shot at the encounter site in which a policeman is seen firing at a motionless body, he said, "We have been involved in the action the whole day. We have to look at the video and into its veracity."
Justifying the police action against the SIMI activists, the IG said these were dangerous criminals who were involved in serious crimes and who had escaped after a hacking a security guard in jail.
However, Home Minister Singh had hours ago said that the undertrials used spoons and plates they carried from the prison as weapons to attack the security personnel. Asked for his comments on the TV footage that appeared to contradict encounter theory, he maintained that it was an encounter and police had no option but to eliminate them.
"Our Madhya Pradesh Police has achieved a great success by foiling a possible terror threat to the nation. When there is an encounter, the police have no other option but to open fire. Which is why this case has been handed over to the NIA so that a proper probe can be conducted," Singh said.
The home minister further asserted that the terrorists killed on Monday had escaped from prison earlier too, adding that they were cold-blooded killers and could have murdered several innocent people.
Emphasising that national security must take priority over politics, he further that a major terror threat to the nation had been foiled.
At a brief media interaction, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the jail-break would be probed by the NIA but parried a question on the encounter. He said the state government will also carry out a separate investigation into the matter.
Alleging "discrepancies", AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi demanded an inquiry by Supreme Court to bring out "all facts".
"There is huge discrepancy in what the home minister and the police officials are saying. The state home minister says that these undertrials were armed with spoons. If they were armed with spoons, the Madhya Pradesh ATS could have easily overpowered them, because ATS has all sophistacated weapons. They could have easily arrested them.
"But, people who have run away from prison after assassinating a guard and they only have spoons. So, to any normal person, this theory is unbelievable," he told media persons.
He wondered how those killed in the encounter were wearing wrist watches, shoes and belts as undertrials are not allowed to keep these things.
CPI-M's Brinda Karat termed the official version of the incident as "highly dubious and suspicious". She said the versions of state government and police were "contradictory".
"Therefore, to get to the truth, it is essential to have an independent probe under a high court judge and should be time-bound because nobody can believe what seems to be a highly manufactured version," she said. Karat said those killed were undertrials and dubbing them as terrorists amounted to "subverting the law".
"I am demanding a judicial probe because even the government must know under what circumstances they escaped. People of the state and country must know how terrorists with with such a record were able to escape from such a high security jail and within hours caught and shot dead," Congress leader Kamal Nath, a Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, said.
Coming out in defence of the police action, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao accused the Congress of batting for terrorists belonging to SIMI the way it had done for LeT in the past. He alleged leaders of the Congress were undermining the morale of the security forces.
"Congress, like they questioned the cross-LoC surgical strike, they are doing the same again for vote bank politics. They are undermining the morale of our security forces," he said.
"I don't think why Congress wants to speak up for such individuals. Politicising the encounter is certainy not a done thing. But Congress party has done this for a long time.
"Looking at the way Congress is politicising the encounter, and that too concerning the particular group or organisation, is a matter of concern. Congress seems to raise concern only when LeT terrorists are killed and when SIMI activists who are convicted and involved in jailbreak.
Images: (Top) A screen-grab of the video aired by television channels that shows a security personnel firing at a dead SIMI suspect. (Bottom) Another screen-grab that shows an official pulling a knife from the body of a dead suspect. Incidentally, the video shows that the officials seemed to know where to find the knife.
