HC CONSTITUTES NEW SIT TO PROBE ISHRAT ENCOUNTER

The Gujarat High Court on September 24 constituted a new special investigations team comprising three Indian Police Services officers to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. A division bench of justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari directed the state government to issue a notification regarding the formation of the new SIT within two weeks. The SIT has been asked to submit its report within three months of the issuance of the notification. The decision came during the hearing of a petition filed by the father of Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, who was killed along with Ishrat, seeking review of the high court’s earlier order transferring the probe in the case to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. The SIT, probing some of the 2002 riot cases, had earlier conveyed to the court its inability to investigate the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.