Ahmedabad: The special investigation team
(SIT) probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and
three others had submitted a progress report in the Gujarat
High court, officials said here on Thursday.
The report was submitted following directions of the
division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari
at the last hearing.
The next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, when the
court would review progress of the probe.
RR Verma, a 1978 batch IPS officer, took charge as the
fourth chairman of the SIT on July 28, as JV Ramudu, who had
been assigned the responsibility by the High Court earlier,
declined to join, citing health reasons.
Ramudu, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IPS officer, had further
said that the union government did not take his consent before
recommending his name for the SIT chief`s post.
Tomorrow, the secretary and joint secretary in Union
ministry of home affairs are likely to submit an affidavit in
the court on this issue.
Ishrat, along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai,
Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, was killed in a police
encounter on June 15, 2004.
After the encounter, city crime branch had claimed that
they were LeT terrorists who had come to kill Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi.
Gujarat High Court constituted the SIT last year to
investigate genuineness of the encounter following petitions
filed by Ishrat`s mother Shamima Kausar and Gopinath Pillai,
the father of Pranesh Pillai.
PTI
