By IANS,
Gandhinagar : The state government Wednesday urged the Gujarat High Court not to entertain a petition seeking transfer of probe into the Sadiq Jamal police shootout case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Government counsel P.K. Jani submitted before Justice M.R. Shah that the court should not entertain the plea which was filed by invoking the court’s extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the constitution.
The plea was filed last week by Shabbir Jamal Mehtar, brother of alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Sadiq Jamal Mehtar who was killed Jan 13, 2003, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
He alleged that sadiq was gunned down by police in a staged shootout.
“This petition under Article 226 may not be maintainable when a remedy before a lower court is available,” said Jani.
He claimed that the petition and the affidavit filed by Mumbai-based journalist Ketan Tirodkar were aimed at giving the colour of a staged shootout to Sadiq Jamal’s killing.
Jani claimed the facts of the case were different from the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case.
He claimed the petition was an attempt to demoralise police.
In an earlier hearing, petitioner’s counsel Mukul Sinha had sought a CBI probe into Sadiq’s case.
On Wednesday, Sinha said the police claim that Sadiq was killed in a shootout when they fired in self-defence was not convincing.
The case would be heard next Thursday.