A bench of the Gujarat high court, on Friday, directed the special investigation team (SIT) probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to give its conclusive report on October 5 regarding the genuineness of the encounter. The bench comprising justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari also directed the government not to transfer officials in the staff of SIT until the investigation was complete.
In addition, the Board of Experts (BoE) of the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) shall also submit, within two weeks, a report answering the questions raised by the SIT chairman. The bench then posted the case for further hearing on October 7.
The bench was hearing arguments over the progress report submitted by the SIT regarding the investigation done by it after senior IPS officer RR Verma took charge as chairman of the probe team. Verma submitted the report and sought more time to file a conclusive report. ''We have received the report on the medical and scientific aspects of the case. We have raised some questions about some important aspects of the case,'' RR Verma told the court. He further said that they were waiting for the reply to their queries and, hence, wanted one months' time to submit the conclusive report.
Verma also raised the issue of the number of staff that the SIT had. He said that the probe team had been given the requisite staff by the state government but some of them had been transferred out of Ahmedabad when the investigation was still going on. He further said that they had requested the central government to provide them with some manpower for the investigation.
At this, Mukul Sinha, counsel for Gopinath Pillai whose son, Pranesh alias Javed, was also killed in the encounter, told the court that one year had already passed since the investigation was taken up by the SIT.
"One months' time sought to complete the investigation is enough if someone wants to influence witnesses. Therefore, the SIT should conclude the investigation at the earliest,'' Sinha said.
