By Special Correspondent, TwoCircles.net,
Ahmedabad: The Maharashtra government has categorically refused to spare Additional Director General( Law and Order) Satyapal Singh to head a team of investigators to further probe the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. The state government has communicated this to Union Home Secretary Gopal K. Pillai and also requested the latter to inform the decision of the Maharashtra government to the Gujarat High Court within a day or two.
The name of Singh was chosen by the Gujarat High Court from among a list of three names for the job suggested by the central government’s standing counsel on May 13. The counsel had assured a bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari that Singh would spare full time for the investigatios.
Singh was chosen by the high court because he was the senior most among the three names suggested for the job. The other two were J V Ramudu of Andhra Pradesh cadre and Rajesh Ranjan of Bihar cadre.
The high court had appointed Singh as chairman of the probe team after former chairman Karnail Singh was transferred to Mizoram and had expressed his inability to continue in the probe team. Though The Maharashtra government had taken the stand that the state government was facing too much sensitive law and order issues to leave Singh for the Gujarat probe, sources in the government say that it was Singh who himself had refused to take up the job in Gujarat.
According to sources, Singh is involved in alleged fake encounters of two Kashmiris in Mumbai and is facing inquiry and hence, he is not willing to head a team probing the fake encounter.