Come out with truth in a month, Gujarat High Court tells Ishrat SIT

The Gujarat high court, on Friday, entrusted sweeping powers to RR Verma, chairman of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Ishrat encounter. The court directed SIT to come out with the truth behind the encounter by September 9.

A bench of justice Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari entrusted the SIT with the task of finding out whether the encounter was genuine or not. The bench also gave it liberty to arrest anyone who tried to influence witnesses or hamper the investigation. This includes officers of SIT or those from outside the agency.

The bench issued some strict remarks after Mukul Sinha, counsel for Gopinathan Pillai, complained that eight months had passed since the constitution of SIT but no headway has been made in the probe.

Sinha also brought to the court's notice the trend in which important witnesses are retracting their statement.

"According to newspaper reports one witness in the case retracted his statements. Earlier too witnesses like Moti Desai and Shiv Singh did the same. It has been eight months since SIT's formation but there is hardly any result," said Sinha. Referring to SIT member Satish Verma's affidavit against his SIT colleague Mohan Jha, Sinha said, "Verma pointed out circumstances which indicated that Jha was connected with the retraction of statement by Moti Desai and also filing of complaint against Verma."

Sinha further alleged that witnesses who once register their statement are again called to the SIT office to get it retracted. "It is a gross violation of law as a statement cannot be retracted without intervention of court," Sinha said.

He also said that a fresh FIR should be lodged in the matter and those who are trying to influence the probe should be put behind bars.

Following the argument, the bench asked the SIT to find out whether the encounter was genuine or not and gave it powers to act against those responsible for witnesses retracting their statement.

The court also gave RR Verma the powers to appoint and nominate officers to conduct the investigation.

The bench also clarified that two other members of SIT, Satish Verma and Mohan Jha can express their opinion during the probe but RR Verma's decision would be final.

It also directed it to file a report on September 8 and the court will make take up hearing on September 9.

When the court was dictating the order, RR Verma requested that the SIT be given some more time to come out with a conclusion.
But the court said it will grant further time after examining the report that will be filed by SIT.