By IANS,
Gandhinagar : The Gujarat High Court Thursday appointed Maharashtra Police officer Satyapal Singh as chairman of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by it to probe the Ishrat Jahan suspected staged shootout case.
A 1980 batch Indian Police Service officer, Singh is currently additional director general of police (establishment) in Maharashtra.
A bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari, in their order, said Singh will head the SIT and he will investigate the case along with Satish Verma and Mohan Jha, both the Gujarat cadre IPS officers. The bench also asked the SIT to file a progress report in a sealed cover on June 14.
Appointment of the new chairman of the SIT came after Karnail Singh, the earlier head, was transferred to Mizoram.
Meanwhile, the state government once again pleaded for the probe to be handed over to a special task force constituted by it but Justice Patel expressed displeasure over the plea which he turned down.
The plea came in an affidavit filed by Advocate General Kamal Trivedi stating that the present case should be handed over to the STF as there are serious differences within the officers of the SIT.
Blaming the government for acting in a manner that hampers the investigation, Justice Patel said that the court has reasons to believe from the progress report filed by the former SIT chairman and reports from other members that the government has been acting in a way to see that the probe is stalled.
Mukul Sinha, counsel for Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai who was killed in the shootout, also objected to the STF’s proposal, saying the government is trying to push a proposal on a subject already decided by the court.
Meanwhile Justice Patel also took a strong stand by not accepting the unconditional apology of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Balvant Singh over the delay in transfer of policemen who were likely to influence subordinate police witnesses.
“The affidavit is not satisfactory and the government should furnish each and every details of movement of the file regarding transfer of policemen including name of the officer and what role he played in the process,” he said.
The court had directed transfer of P.P. Pandey, chief of CID, G.L. Sighal, superintendent (Anti-Terrorist Squad) and Tarun Barot, assistant commissioner of police (Special Operation Group).
On April 28, the bench had sought explanation of the additional chief secretary (home) why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him over the delay in transfer of the trio involved in the shoot-out in which Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh, Jissan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana was gunned down June 15, 2004.