The Gujarat high court on Friday constituted a new special investigations team comprising three Indian Police Services officers to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
A division bench of justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari directed the state government to issue a notification regarding the formation of the new SIT within two weeks.
The SIT has been asked to submit its report within three months of the issuance of the notification. The decision came during the hearing of 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.
Mumbai-based Ishrat 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 IPS officers in new SIT selected by the court are Karnail Singh, a 1984 batch IPS officer whose name was suggested by the union home ministry, Mohan Jha 1985 batch Gujarat cadre officer named by the state government and Satish Verma of 1986 batch was suggested by the petitioner.