The Gujarat High Court on Thursday admitted a petition for a CBI probe into the death of Javed Shaikh (along with Ishrat Jahan) in an encounter in June 2004. It issued notice to the Union of India, the State government and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The petition was filed by Gopinathan Pillai, father of Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, who also urged expeditious hearing.
Ishrat, Javed Shaikh and two other alleged terrorists were killed by the Detection of Crime Branch on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat, already moved a petition seeking CBI investigation.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Jayant Patel and Z. K. Saiyed has directed that both petitions and all related issues be clubbed together, and fixed the final hearing for July 14.
The petitions were filed after the publication of the report of Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S. P. Tamang, who had conducted a routine inquiry and concluded that what happened was a “fake encounter” and that the police had “cold bloodedly killed four persons.” However, Justice K. S. Jhaveri stayed the implementation of the report, saying the magistrate submitted it even when the matter was pending before the court.
Mr. Pillai and Ms. Kausar thereafter moved the Supreme Court against the High Court's stay order. The police personnel who were accused of the killings have challenged Mr. Tamang's report in the High Court.
In another case, the Gujarat police said they were awaiting the arrival of National Investigation Agency officials to inquire into the September 2008 Modasa bomb blast, in which one person was killed and many were injured. “It is alright with us,” said Director-General of Police S. S. Khandwawala.
The Union Home Ministry informed the State police that it was handing over the unsolved case to the NIA. The investigation into the blast near a mosque in the north Gujarat town was so far handled by the Sabarkantha district police.
The NIA taking over the case follows the unearthing of some links between the Modasa blast and the explosion in Malegaon in Maharashtra, also in 2008, in which four people were killed. Sadhvi Pragnya Thakur and an ex-army officer were arrested in that case.
