The 229-page report of former Supreme Court judge, Justice H.S. Bedi, into the 17 Gujarat police encounters explained why he chose not to act on an allegation that the chief of the Special Task Force (STF) investigating the cases was “particularly close” to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Justice Bedi was referring to a representation made by one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court, Shabnam Hashmi, about IPS officer A.K. Sharma, who was then heading the STF probing the 17 cases. “In this representation the primary grievance made was that Mr. A.K. Sharma was very close to the political leadership in the State of Gujarat and was a convenient officer who would do its bidding,” Justice Bedi wrote in the report.
But Justice Bedi wrote that he did not entertain the allegation and had asked Ms. Hashmi to “pursue such other remedies that could be available to her”.
He adds that to his information nothing further had happened in this regard.
Justice Bedi further explained that, as Chairman of the Monitoring Authority of the STF probe into the encounter cases, he was empowered to constitute teams of investigating officers from either within or outside the State of Gujarat.
But he was not authorised by the Supreme Court to remove any officer nominated by the State government.
Both the STF and the Monitoring Authority had been notified by the Gujarat government. “In any case”, Justice Bedi added, “no cogent reasons had been spelt out by Ms. Hashmi.”