Gujarat seeks policy on staged shootout probes

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday issued notice to the central government and the apex human rights panel on the Gujarat government's plea seeking directions to formulate a uniform policy for setting up an independent agency to probe alleged staged shootouts.

The notice was issued to the National Human Rights Commission and

all state governments and union territories.

The petition said that such a step would ensure that "on the one hand, extra-judicial killings under the garb of 'fake encounters' stop and at the same time honest police officers, discharging their duties against terrorist organisations/organised criminals, are not demoralised, being under the threat of possibility of motivated allegations being made against them".