Ahmedabad:
A petition was filed in Gujarat High Court on Friday seeking review of its order of transferring the investigation into the killing of Ishrat Jehan in an alleged fake police encounter to Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing some of the 2002 riot cases.
The petition was filed by Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai who was one of the three persons killed in the alleged fake police encounter along with Ishrat in June 2004.
A Division Bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari had on August 12 ordered the transfer of the probe in the encounter of Ishrat, an alleged LeT operative, and three others to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.
They had also rejected plea of Gopinath and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, for a CBI inquiry into the case.
In the petition, Gopinath has sought a review of the court's order of August 12 and demanded a CBI inquiry in the case.
In its order last week, the court had observed that there was no material on record to conclude that the encounter was with malafide intentions and, therefore, the plea for a CBI inquiry was not granted.
But it agreed that the probe done by police officers was not satisfactory and the genuineness of the encounter deserved further investigation and transferred the case to SIT to 'instill confidence and credibility in the investigations.'
Mumbai-based college student Ishrat was killed in an encounter along with Javed Ghulam Sheikh, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani by Crime Branch officials near Ahmedabad on June 15,2004.
The Gujarat police at the time of the encounter had claimed that Ishrat and three others were Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the police, the encounter was carried out based on specific inputs from central intelligence agencies that LeT was planning to carry out attacks in various parts of India including Gujarat.
The Centre, in an affidavit filed in the apex court with regard to Ishrat and three others, had said that they were LeT operatives and Javed was in regular touch with LeT operatives particularly to carry out terrorist action in Gujarat.