On October 5, two UP-based lawyers Shiv Kumar Tripathi and C S Panda wrote to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking a court-monitored high-level inquiry into the incident. The letter urged the court to treat it as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and order the probe so that the guilty could be “brought to justice”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and comprising Justices Suryakant and Hima Kohli First heard the case on Thursday in which Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prashad appeared on behalf of the state. However, as the court issued notice to the UP government and sought a status report, Salve was briefed in the high-stakes case.

Sources told The Indian Express that Uttar Pradesh law minister Brijesh Pathak issued a work order for Salve late Thursday night.

In earlier high-profile cases, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was mostly roped in for UP including in the Hathras gang-rape case and the cases related to protests against the new citizenship law. In the Hathras case last year, Salve appeared for the DGP of Uttar Pradesh in the case seeking a central probe into the gangrape and murder of a 19-year old woman.