Gujarat HC issues notice to govt on alleged police encounter of 14-year-old

In response to a PIL demanding investigation into the murder of Madeen Khan, a 14-year-old boy, in an alleged police encounter, the division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri of the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the state government. The government must respond by January 18. The court further asked government lawyers to take instruction and file an affidavit accordingly.

Madeen Khan and his father Hanifkhan Jatlamalik aka Kalu Munno were killed in an alleged police encounter on November 6 night by the Gujarat Police. Kalu Munno is a gangster who has about 86 criminal cases pending against him and was wanted in the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime (GUJCTOC) Act for his involvement in several criminal cases of loot and theft. The boy, police claim, was 18-years-old. The PIL was filed by Sohana Malek, Madeen's sister, through advocate Vicky Mehta and is argued by senior advocate Yatin Oza.

"The police team led by police sub-inspector VN Jadeja and others came to her house in a private vehicle, dragged her father and put him in the vehicle. Looking at the atrocity, the 14-year-old brother of the petitioner went to ask why his father was dragged and followed him. Seeing this, the respondent - 5 (Jadeja) shot the brother of the petitioner point-blank in the chest," the petitioner said.

"On seeing his son being shot in cold blood, the father also got angry and as he came to see his child, he was also shot dead," says the petitioner in her PIL.

"No doubt, there are many offences registered against the father of the petitioner herein i.e Hanifkhan. However, this will not give an automatic licence to the respondent number 5 to 11 to carry out a fake encounter," the PIL further reads.

The police, however, repeated the oft-repeated script in encounters that the father-son duo was shot while trying to escape from the police team. They said that they resorted to firing after Hanif shot at the police team to resist his arrest assisted by his son and others.

The seven-member team led by Jadeja had gone to the village to nab Hanif based on specific information. Jadeja fired in self-defence after being shot and hit by a sharp weapon by Madeen. One of the bullets hit Hanif in the chest while another hit Madeen, the police said.