By IANS
New Delhi : Adding to the woes of the Gujarat government over allegations of staged killings, a rights group Tuesday moved the Supreme Court for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killing of yet another Muslim youth in the state in 2002.
The Action Now for Harmony and Democracy (Anhad), along with film lyricist and activist Javed Akhtar and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a CBI probe into the killing of Sameer Khan Pathan, who had been dubbed by the Gujarat police as a Pakistan-trained Jaish-e-Mohammad militant.
The suit is likely to come up for hearing Monday, the day slated for the hearing of fresh petitions.
The petition contended that a Gujarat High Court had questioned the claim that Pathan was a militant and had visited Pakistan for terrorist training.
Quoting a report by Gujarat's Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tirath Raj, who had probed the killing in an "encounter" or shootout with police in Ahmedabad in October 2002, the petition alleged that the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) was involved in attempts to hush up a departmental inquiry into it.
It said Tilak Raj had "referred to the involvement of P.K. Mishra, then Modi's principal secretary, and the state's director general of police" in hushing up the probe into the killing.
The petition also quoted from an official forensic report to substantiate the allegation that Khan's killing was a staged one.
"The forensic report said that the trajectory of the bullet established that Sameer Khan Pathan had been hit from a close range and not while fleeing as the Gujarat police had everyone believe."
It added: "Traces of gunpowder were also found on Sameer Khan's shirt, another forensic fact that establishes that Khan was shot at from point-blank range."
The petition said Deputy Superintendent of Police I.K. Yadav, who had made a preliminary enquiry into the "suspected extra-judicial killing", had been threatened by then Deputy Inspector General of Police D.G. Vanjhara, who is currently in judicial custody for his alleged role in the staged killing of Ujjain youth Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005 in Ahmedabad.