Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court on Thursday came down heavily on state government and rejected its proposal for transfer of 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case to Special Task Force (STF), while appointing a new chairman of the special investigation team (SIT) formed by it to probe the case.
A division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari on Thursday ordered appointment of 1980 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre Dr Satyapal Singh as new SIT chief. Singh will replace Karnail Singh, who was relieved off the charge on his request following his posting in the north-eastern state of Mizoram.
During the hearing on Thursday, counsel for Central government, Pankaj Champaneri, produced names of three senior IPS officers suggested by Union Ministry of Home Affairs as asked by the court last month.
Besides Singh, other names included J V Ramadu, a 1981 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre and Rajesh Ranjan of 1984 batch from Bihar cadre.
The HC appointed Singh after Champaneri informed that out of the three Singh is the one who would be able to spare maximum time for the probe.
Meanwhile, the high court came down heavily on the state government when it proposed in an affidavit that probe in the case could be transfered to STF, working under a Monitoring Authority formed by it to probe the deaths resulting from police encounters.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, who was appearing for the state government, proposed transfer of the case to STF contending that the SIT formed by the court was not functioning properly and moreover there were differences among
its members.
At this point Justice Patel lashed out at Trivedi saying that why was state filing this affidavit when a similar proposition made by it had been rejected when the SIT was formed last year.
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