SC restrains Gujarat Govt from entrusting Ishrat case to SIT

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday
restrained the Gujarat government from entrusting the Ishrat
Jahan encounter case to the Special Investigation Team (SIT)
headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan which is probing
the post Godhara communal riots in the state.
A bench headed by Justice B Sudershan Reddy passed the
order on an application moved by advocate Brinda Grover,
appearing for Shamina Kausar, mother of the deceased,
challenging the Gujarat High Court's decision to entrust the
probe into the killings to the SIT.
The High Court had earlier on a plea by Shamima
decided to entrust the case of the sensational killings of the
teenager and three others to the SIT on the basis of the
findings of Magistrate S P Tamang that it was a fake encounter
and a cold blooded murder.
The family of the deceased is, however, opposed to any
probe by the SIT and instead wants the case to be investigated
by the CBI on the lines of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake
encounter case.

Mumbai-based Ishrat (19), was killed in an encounter
along with Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai,
Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul
Gani by crime branch officials near Ahmedabad on June 15,
2004.
The Gujarat Police at the time of encounter had
claimed that Ishrat and three others were LeT operatives on a
mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The encounter was carried out based on specific inputs
from the Central Intelligence that Lashkar-e-Toiba was
planning to carry out attacks on various parts of India, the
Gujarat police had claimed.
The Centre, in an affidavit filed in the apex court with
regard to Ishrat and three others, had stated that Javed
Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, killed in the
encounter along with Ishrat, was in regular touch with LeT
operatives particularly to carry out terrorist action in
Gujarat.
The Gujarat government had faced an embarrassment
after a magisterial report by Tamang on September 7, 2009 held
the encounter as "fake" and sought prosecution of the officers
responsible for the same.
The apex court had earlier stayed all further
proceedings in Gujarat High Court relating to the killings
after Ishrat's mother approached it challenging the stay
granted by the single judge. PTI RB
AHM