Ishrat case: Guj govt issues notification for SIT

The Gujarat government on Monday informed the high court that they have issued a notification for the formation of a new Special Investigation Team to probe the encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

A division bench of Justices A M Kapadia and B N Mehta, after the submission of the government pleader, disposed of the contempt of court petition filed by one Gopinath Pillai.

Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, who had died in the encounter, had filed a contempt petition against the state government for not complying with the high court's earlier order of September 23 to issue the notification of formation of SIT within two weeks.

During the hearing of the case, the state government through its pleader said that it had issued notification for the formation of a new SIT, which had been notified in the gazette on November 19.

During the last hearing of the contempt petition, the state government had assured the court that it will issue the notification soon. The government pleader had also said that the delay had been caused as the state government had approached the Supreme Court against the high court's order.

However, the apex court had rejected the Gujarat government's petition challenging the high court's order of forming a new SIT on November 12

Members of the new SIT include Karnail Singh, a 1984 batch Delhi cadre 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 the 1986 batch.

Mumbai-based Ishrat Jahan, 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 state crime branch officials near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Following the encounter, the Gujarat police had claimed that Ishrat and three other slain youths were Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

It had also claimed that the encounter was carried out following specific inputs from the central intelligence agencies that LeT was planning to carry out attacks in various parts of the country. The SIT will begin the investigation afresh in the encounter case.