SC notice to Centre, Arunachal on Tawang Monastry Lama's death

The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and Arunachal Pradesh government on a plea seeking an independent probe into the death of two persons including a Lama of the Tawang Monastery in alleged police firing last year.
Tawang Monastery is the largest in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar issued notice to the Centre and state government on a plea which sought an independent probe by a SIT saying "the people have lost faith in the state authorities as well as the central government, they do not believe that justice will be done within the state".

The plea said that if not an SIT, then a CBI probe should be directed by the court into the incident of firing and injuries inflicted by police on the mob in protest leading to the death of two civilians.
The petition, filed on behalf of the sister and father of the deceased, referred to an inquiry commission report, which had stated that 380 rounds of ammunition were fired from different weapons, and "after the firing incident, police requested all the magistrates to give firing order ex-post facto to regularise the firing".
The plea said that commission report had concluded that the police firing was "unjustified" as the police force had failed to follow all the standard operating procedures, and had recommended that investigation into the matter should be handed over to an independent agency.

The petition relates to an incident where police and the paramilitary forces had allegedly opened fire on unarmed protesters on May 2 last year in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, resulting into the death of two persons -- Lama Nima Wangdi and Tsering Tempa.
The incident, in which several people were also injured, had created widespread disquiet in the state, the plea said, alleging inaction on the part of both the state and central government as it claimed that none of the guilty has been arrested.