SC clears way for probe into Ishrat case
Twenty-four cops, including three IPS officers — one of them being DG Vanzara who is already booked in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case — could be under the scanner. Within the next 15 days, the state government will have to issue a notification formalising the SIT, making way for investigation to begin into the case.
A bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar made light of the arguments by Gujarat government’s lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi that the HC had no power to constitute a special SIT when the state had already set up a similar body.
Dismissing the appeal against the HC order, the bench said the HC had inherent powers to order investigation by a special agency in rare instances where the crime merited such a move. Interestingly, both Ishrat’s mother Shamima and Gujarat government had appealed against the HC order directing the probe to be given to SIT.
The Gujarat high court had, in September, set up an SIT headed by joint commissioner (special branch) Karnail Singh of 1984 batch. Singh was part of the controversial Batla House encounter at Jamia Nagar in Delhi in 2008. The other two officers are 1985 batch Mohan Jha and Satish Verma from Gujarat. While Jha heads the Ahmedabad crime branch and was proposed by the state government, Verma, now posted in Gujarat Police Housing Corporation, was suggested by petitioner Gopinath Pillai.
Jha was also part of the first SIT constituted last year, which was dissolved by an HC division bench. While Shamima wanted the probe to be entrusted to CBI, the state challenged the basis of magisterial inquiry by S P Tamang, who described it as a cold-blooded murder, and also the transfer of probe from the Gujarat police.
Ishrat Jahan was killed in a shootout, along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar alias Abdul Gani and Amjad Ali alias Salim on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
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