Ishrat case: Don’t force us to call in a Central agency,HC to Guj govt

The court was unhappy over its directions not being heeded to entirely by the Gujarat government and felt there was an attempt to see that Satish Verma,one of the three members of the SIT formed by it to probe the case,was not allowed to function.

The Bench comprising Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari has been hearing the petition moved by the parents of Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai,who were killed along with two others in an encounter by Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in June 2004.

Acting on the petitions,the court had formed an SIT comprising three IPS officers,two from Gujarat-cadre,Mohan Jha and Satish Verma,and one from Delhi-cadre,Karnal Singh. The SIT had submitted its probe status report before the Bench recently and the court had kept hearing on the same on Friday.

After reading the report,the court asked Advocate General Kamal Trivedi,who appeared on behalf of the state government,as to why certain officers have not been transferred from their key postings as demanded by the SIT. The AG told the court that almost all the officers have been transferred as sought but added he would have to check what were the “pressing” reasons for not transferring others. He assured the court that he would make a statement in that regard in the next hearing after “taking stock” of the situation.

At this point,Justice Patel,speaking on behalf of the bench,said that if this is the approach of the state government,then “we will be compelled to assign the case to some Central agency,if not CBI,like NIA (National Investigation Agency)”.

Karnail transfer surprises court

The court was surprised to hear that Karnail Singh,chairman of the SIT,had been transferred from Delhi to Mizoram. The court said it was not intimated to it by anybody. The court was informed that the Mizoram government had not given Karnail Singh permission to function on his Gujarat assignment. The court observed that it should have been informed about the transfer as a courtesy.

SIT gets rap for ‘poor progress’

The court also expressed unhappiness with the report submitted by the SIT,calling it a “poor progress of investigation”. It seems out of the three SIT members,only Satish Verma seems to be doing the investigation,the court said.