Judicial panel to probe Simi encounter

The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday constituted a judicial commission headed by retired judge of MP high court S.K. Pandey to probe the October 31 jailbreak by eight suspected SIMI activists and their subsequent killing in an alleged encounter here.

A notification issued by the general administration department of the MP government here in the evening said the commission would submit its report within three months. The terms of reference for the commission of inquiry included events leading to the jailbreak and the officers responsible for the incident, events leading to encounter of the eight fugitives later on the city outskirt and under what circumstances they were killed.

The panel has also been asked to probe if the encounter killing of the fleeing SIMI members was an appropriate action by the police then. It has also been asked to recommend steps to ensure that the jailbreak incident did not recur in the future.