Gandhinagar, Sep 9 (IANS) The Gujarat High Court Thursday – while hearing a review petition in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan suspected staged shootout case – asked counsel to suggest names of investigators for constituting a new special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killing.
A division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari asked the petitioners, the central government and the state government, to propose names of officers not below the rank of deputy inspector general (DIG) from the state police department, central agencies, army, paramilitary forces or any other agency, who may be considered to form a new SIT.
Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged staged shootout on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004 by Gujarat policemen.
The police team of the Ahmedabad Crime branch headed by D.G. Vanzara, now in jail in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case.
The four were termed by the crime branch as part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror module looking to eliminate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The high court sought the names of investigators after the apex court recently directed the high court to constitute an investigation team of its own.
The apex court came out against handing over Ishrat Jahan case probe to the R.K. Raghavan-headed SIT appointed by it to investigate key 2002 communal riots cases in Gujarat.
The high court Aug 12, handed over investigation of the case to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT which was later stayed by the apex court.
The Supreme Court appointed SIT, which is investigating the 2002 riots cases, has shown its inability to carry out investigation of the case.
During the arguments Thursday, the high court said that while delivering the judgment of the case and entrusting the investigation to the Supreme Court appointed SIT, the court could not look into the aspect that the SIT was overburdened.
The Union government and the state government were allowed time till Sep 17 to submit their list of proposed names.
Further hearing of the case is slated on Sep 17.
