DECEMBER 2: Justices A P Shah and J A Patil of the Bombay High Court today expressed an inclination to order a judicial probe by a Sessions Court judge into the alleged fake encounter of Abu Salem gangman Javed Fawda in August 1997.

The judges ruled out the possibility of a CBI inquiry into the matter. Instead, they wanted to entrust the probe to a Commission of Inquiry.

The division bench was hearing a group of five writ petitions questioning the veracity of encounter deaths of 100-odd criminals in Mumbai in the last three years. Today was the second day of the arguments.

The matter has now been kept for December 8.

Special Public Prosecutor V R Manohar today said the police were ready for any kind of probe. Moreover, he has already discussed the possibility of an inquiry committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court, retired police officers of the rank of Inspector General of Police and retired IAS officer of the rank of a secretary to the state government.

He said the state government was agreeable to such an inquiry into the alleged fake encounters.

However, the court cannot order an inquiry on a mere doubt about the genuineness of the encounters. He reiterated that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code have given certain rights to the police. ``We should not equate the police with the common public. They do have the right to open fire in self-defence.

"The fact to be probed is whether they have used this right for a genuine cause or not.''

Manohar also assured the court that he will present a tabular chart of the 100-odd encounters in the past three years on Monday.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.