HC forms new SIT to probe Ishrat Jahan case

Ahmedabad : The Gujarat government was on Friday instructed by the state High Court to constitute a new special investigation team (SIT) to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

A devision bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari asked the state government to issue the notification for the new SIT, comprising three IPS officers, within two weeks of the order.

He SIT, on the other hand, will have to submit its report within three months of the issuance of the notification.

The Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in new SIT are Karnail Singh, a 1984 batch IPS officer whose name was suggested by the Union Home ministry, Mohan Jha, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre officer named by the state government and Satish Verma of 1986 batch, suggested by the petitioner.

The Court passed the order on a petition filed by the father of Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, a suspected terrorist killed along with Ishrat, seeking review of the high court’s earlier order transferring the probe in the case to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

The SIT, probing some of the 2002 riot cases, had earlier conveyed to the court its inability to investigate the Ishrat Jahan encounter case due to its present committments.

Mumbai-based Ishrat was killed in an encounter along with Javed Ghulam Sheikh, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani by crime branch officials near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat police had claimed that they were LeT operatives on a mission to kill state chief minister Narendra Modi.