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SIT hands over Ishrat encounter case charge to CBI
Ahmedabad, January 6, 2012
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The Gujarat High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Ishrat Jehan encounter case of 2004, today handed over charge of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A CBI team led by V V Laxminarayan, Special Director, CBI, Hyderabad, is in the city and a meeting between them and all the three members of SIT is being held at SIT headquarters here. The process of handing over charge, which began at around 1030 hrs, is expected to continue till evening.
SIT Chairman R R Varma and two other members, Satish Varma and Mohan Jha, handed over the documents and related papers to the CBI team. The SIT has also made arrangements to translate some Gujarati documents into English.
< div> The CBI had registered a case in this regard a few weeks ago.
G Kalaimani, an SP rank CBI officer, will be the investigating officer of the case who will work under Laxminarayan's supervision. Arun Bothra, Additional Director, Special Crime Zone, CBI, Mumbai, will also join the investigation.
The CBI is expected to work from Gandhinagar as it is yet to get a separate office in Gandhinagar or in Ahmedabad.
The SIT Chairman will submit a report to the High Court, mentioning all details including the filing of FIR with CBI.
The High Court had handed over the probe into the encounter case to CBI on December 1 and directed the SIT to register a fresh FIR in the case.
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After considering the options of handing over the probe either to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the CBI and the state police and seeking opinion of all concerned, a division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari had assigned the probe to the CBI in November last year and had ordered a fresh investigation into murder charge after the SIT observed that the encounter was fake and the four were killed in cold blood elsewhere than mentioned in the first FIR.
Earlier, the state government-ordered judicial inquiry by Metropolitan Magistrate S P Tamang, which submitted its report two years ago, also found that the encounter was fake and the victims killed in cold blood.
As many as 20 police officials, including four IPS officers, were allegedly involved in the fake encounter. A few witnesses also retracted their statements before SIT.
The SIT was formed by the High Court last year to probe the alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jehan, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two suspected Pakistanis - Amjad Ali Rana and Jishan Jauhar - by crime branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. At that time, police claimed they were Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives out to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi to avenge 2002 Gujarat riots, that claimed over 1200 lives, mostly Muslims.
NNN
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