The Supreme Court on 23 May rapped the UP police for its inability to arrest a history-sheeter, who is accused of multiple murder cases as well as last year’s Muzaffarnagar riot cases, and entrusted the investigations of a murder case to the CBI. The CBI, which is generally reluctant to take up investigations into such cases citing work load, readily agreed to conduct a thorough investigation into the case which could be a source of embarrassment for the Akhilesh administration, given the flak his government had drawn for inept handling of the riots.
A petition, filed by one Suresh Paul, had alleged that the local police appeared ineffective against the history sheeter Praveen aka Billu, who for a trivial issue had killed his (Paul’s) daughter. He also alleged that there were nine more cases pending against him including two related to Muzaffarnagar riots. Yet, the police had not arrested him, emboldening him to create a terror in Bhaurakala village. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N V Ramana did not attach much weight to UP’s counsel Irshad Ahmed who without disputing the number of cases pending against Praveen, said the state police was taking steps to arrest the accused and produce him in a court.