1. An incident which took place in village Tikunia in the Lakhimpur Kheri District of Uttar Pradesh, during the farmers’ protests on 03.10.2021, prompted this Court to initiate these suo motu proceedings in public interest. 2. Vide order dated 17.11.2021, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was ordered to be re-constituted with a further direction that the ongoing investigation shall be monitored by a former Judge of the High Court. Paras 8 and 9 of the order dated 17.11.2021 are to the following effect: “8. While investigating such offences, justice must not only be done, but also be seen and perceived to be done. We thus deem it appropriate to reconstitute the SIT hereinafter to preserve the faith and trust of people in the Criminal Administration of the Justice System. Further, to assure full and complete justice to the victims of crime, we are inclined to order that the ongoing investigation be monitored by a retired High Court Judge, who too may not have his roots in the State of Uttar Pradesh. We, therefore, appoint Justice (Retd.) Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, to monitor the ongoing investigation so as to ensure transparency, fairness and absolute impartiality in Digitally signed by satish kumar yadav Date: 2023.09.21 17:16:24 IST Reason:

Signature Not Verified the outcome of the investigation in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident which is to be conducted in a time- bound manner. 9. We are informed that the present SIT predominantly comprises of middle level/subordinate level police officers posted in district Lakhimpur Kheri. It appears to us that in spite of their perceived commitment and sincerity in carrying out the investigation, there may still be a lurking suspicion in respect of the fairness and independence of such an investigation. We, therefore, deem it appropriate to direct reconstitution ofthe SIT infused with directly recruited IPS officers who do not hail from the State of U.P. though are allocated to U.P. Cadre. It goes without saying that the SIT shall utilize latest forensic investigative methods to reach the truth. The shortlisted officers are as follows: 1. Mr. S.B. Shiradkar IPS, Batch RR 1993 ADG Intelligence HQ, hailing from Nanded, Maharashtra. (Head of SIT) 2. Ms. Padmaja Chauhan, IG, IPS-RR 1998 3. Dr. Preetinder Singh, DIG, IPS-RR 2004 3. It is a matter of record that the SIT, under the monitoring of Justice (Retd.) Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, completed the investigation in FIR No.219/21 on 03.01.2022 and filed the chargesheet. Similarly, the investigation in FIR No.220/21 was completed on 20.01.2022, followed by the chargesheet. The SIT nevertheless continued the investigation in FIR No.220/21 to establish the identity of the remaining unknown accused. 4. It is also a matter of record that the Court of competent jurisdiction took cognizance in both the matters and after framing of charges, the trials have commenced. 5. There are other proceedings pending before this Court in which the learned Trial Judge periodically has been apprising about the prosecution evidence currently being led in both the cases. 6. The Secretary General of this Court has now received a letter dated 12.07.2023 sent by Mr. S.B. Shiradkar, Head of the SIT, the then Additional Director General of Police, Intelligence, and presently Commissioner of Police, Lucknow. In the aforesaid letter, it is, inter alia, pointed out that : “Even though the SIT is continuing with both the investigations, during these sixteen months various members of the SIT were entrusted with other responsibilities. Justice (Retd.) Rakesh Kumar Jain joined as member of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on 17/5/2022, I have joined as Commissioner of Police, Lucknow on 01/8/2022,