Rahul Raj's father to file petition in Supreme Court

Patna, Nov 14 (IANS) Unable to meet President Pratibha Patil to seek justice, the father of Rahul Raj, the Bihar youth shot dead by police in a bus in Mumbai last month, now plans to file a writ petition in the supreme court.

'I will file a writ petition in the supreme court to seek immediate arrest of the Mumbai police officials involved in Rahul Raj's killing in fake encounter", a disappointed K.P. Singh said here Friday after returning from Delhi, where he tried to meet the President but was unsuccessful.

"Now, for us, the Supreme Court is the last hope for justice,' Singh told IANS at his residence in Kadamkuan, a middle class locality here.

Singh said that he had already approached senior lawyer Praveen Parikh, who is also Supreme Court Bar Association president, to file his petition. Earlier he was to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) but after the Supreme Court issued notice to the Maharashtra government on this case in response to a PIL earlier this week, he decided to file a writ petition.

"We want action against police officials responsible for killing of Rahul Raj in a fake encounter as the post-mortem report has revealed the bullets were fired from close range,' he said, adding he has lost faith in politicians in view of the justifications being bandied around for his son's killing.

Singh said that two weeks after the incident, he was yet to receive his son's autopsy report or a list of the items police had recovered from Raj's possession. The Maharashtra government's delay in ordering a judicial probe into the incident was frustrating, he added.

'I fail to understand their hesitation in ordering a judicial probe into the case. It shows that the so-called encounter was fake," he added.

Singh said his son was innocent and had nothing to do with politics.

Police shot dead Raj, 25, on Oct 27 after he allegedly attacked the conductor of a bus in Mumbai and fired at a passenger with his revolver.

Before being shot dead, Raj had said that he wanted to kill Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for inciting his party workers to attack youths from Bihar who were in Mumbai for a railway recruitment examination.

The killing sparked a row between politicians of Maharashtra and Bihar with several parties demanding a judicial probe into the incident. Maharashtra Chief Secretary Johny Joseph is conducting an independent probe into the incident while the Mumbai police Crime Branch is also conducting an internal enquiry into it.