Probe in Sadik Jamal case already on: CBI tells court

A special Central Bureau of investigation court on Wednesday did not pass any order on an application which sought further probe into the Sadik Jamal encounter case, after the investigative agency said that the points raised on the issue were already being probed

Sadik's brother Shabir Jamal had filed an application, seeking directions to the central agency to further probe the involvement of the then Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar, former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah and Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2003 encounter case.

CBI advocate I H Syed submitted before the court that all the relevant aspects in this case were being investigated and very soon they would file a supplementary charge sheet or a report.

He requested the court not to pass any order in the case. After his submission, special CBI judge V K Vyas refrained from passing any order on the application and kept further hearing on August 6.

The application remains pending with the court. Court also heard another application in which all the eight accused in the case, including suspended DySP Tarun Barot had sought Mumbai Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau's report which alleged that Sadik was a terrorist.

The CBI submitted before the court that the IB has requested to keep their 2003 report as a classified one and for that it cannot be shared with the accused. The court has given two weeks' time to the IB to reconsider if it was ready to de-classify the document or not and kept further hearing on the application on July 17.

The court has also mentioned that if by the next hearing the IB still remains undecided whether to de-classify the document or not, then it would pass an appropriate order. Sadik, a resident of Bhavnagar city was killed by a Crime Branch team in an encounter near Galaxy cinema on the outskirts of the city on January 13, 2003.

Gujarat police had claimed that he was a terrorist who had entered the city to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia. On a petition filed by Shabir, Gujarat High Court had in 2011 directed CBI to take over the probe after filing a new FIR in the case.

CBI has filed charge sheet in this case against eight accused on December 21, 2012. Apart from ex-Mumbai scribe Ketan Tirodkar, the CBI has arrested eight Gujarat policemen, including Barot and J G Parmar in the case.