Ahmedabad: Maharashtra cadre IPS officer
Satyapal Singh on Saturday took charge of the special investigation
team (SIT) appointed by Gujarat High Court to probe the
killing of college student Ishrat Jahan and three others in an
encounter with police.
Singh, who had earlier in a letter to the Gujarat High
Court had expressed reluctance to accept the post, changed his
mind and formally took over the SIT post, officials sources
said.
In a letter written to the Gujarat HC last week, Singh,
who was posted as ADGP (Law & Order), had said Maharashtra
government was reluctant to relieve him for heading the probe
into Ishrat's killing.
After taking over the charge at the SIT office in
Shahibhaug area of the city, Singh told reporters that
"earlier the situation was different. Now, I have been
relieved and I have taken charge".
Abhilasha Kumari had appointed Singh as head of the special
investigation team (SIT) on May 12.
Singh was appointed after the then SIT chairman Karnal
Singh expressed his desire to withdraw from the probe
following his posting in Mizoram.
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 the deceased were LeT terrorists who had come to kill
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 18, 2011, 23:28