India: Jharkhand HC orders CBI probe into 2015 Palamu encounter

Ranchi, Oct 23 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the Palamau encounter in which 12 alleged Maoists were shot dead by the police on June 8, 2015.

The father of one of the deceased had filed a petition in the court alleging that those killed were not Maoists and the encounter that took place at Bakoria in the state's Palamau district was fake.

Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe on Monday, observing that the CID investigation was allegedly not going in the right direction, the petitioner's counsel R S Mazumdar said Tuesday.

The court had reserved the matter in March this year after hearing all sides on the petition filed by Jawahar Yadav in 2016, alleging that the encounter was fake and that the CBI must probe it.

The petition further alleged that of the 12 people killed, 10 had no criminal history and the claim that all of them were Maoists was wrong.

Yadav further argued that even Human Rights Commissions had raised doubts over the credibility of the CID probe in the matter.