Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) of Maharashtra Satyapal Singh, who was recently appointed by the Gujarat high court as the chairman of the Special Investigating Team looking into the encounter of Ishrat Jahan, has expressed his inability to continue at the top post.
Eleven Gujarat policemen, including mid-level officers, who were named as accused in the FIR filed by CBI in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case but not chargesheeted, have been made witnesses by the probe agency.
The court allowed the discharge applications after the Gujarat government refused to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute them.
The Special Investigation Team probing the alleged police encounter killing of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others in 2004 on Wednesday submitted its progress report to the Gujarat High Court, officials said.
The special investigation team, probing the 2004 encounter killing of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others, has submitted its progress report to the Gujarat high court, officials said on Thursday.
The Gujarat High Court on Friday relieved Satyapal Singh as chief of Special Investigation Team probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and appointed senior Indian Police Service officer J V Ramudu as his successor.
The Special Investigation Team probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, along with forensic experts, on Thursday reconstructed the events that took place on the day of the incident at the original site near Kotarpur area of the city. SIT chairman Satyapal Singh said that a eleven-member team from the All India Institute of Medical Science and Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi, was helping them in reconstruction and collection of data.
"It is incomprehensible why some files are missing," the former home minister said replying to questions.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday registered a case against 20 policemen in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case in Gujarat. The fresh FIR was registered by the probe agency after the Special Investigation Team probing the case gave its complaint to the CBI on December 15. All the 20 policemen have been charged with murder and destruction of evidence, a senior CBI officer said. The Gujarat high court had on December 1 directed the CBI to take over further probe.
The Special Investigation Team, probing the encounter deaths of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others, on Friday submitted its final report in the Gujarat high court.
Fourteen policemen involved in the Ishrat Jahan encounter on Tuesday alleged there was "serious groupism and infighting" among senior Indian Police Service officers in Gujarat, as a result of which they were being victimised and they have approached the High Court for transferring the case.
The Gujarat government on Wednesday transferred Indian Police Service officers P P Pande, G L Singhal and Assistant Commissioner of Police Tarun Barot following a suggestion by the high court bench hearing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Gujarat government from entrusting the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to the Special Investigation Team headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan which is probing the post-Godhra communal riots in the state
In a surprise move, Gujarat government on Wednesday reinstated suspended IPS officer G L Singhal, an accused in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case whose recording of phone conversations had brought to light the snooping scandal allegedly involving Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah.
The Gujarat high court on Ahmedabad asked the Special Investigation Team, probing the encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, to submit its final report by November 18.
The Special Investigating Team probing the 2004 encounter of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others has seized some computer hard disks and documents related to the case after raiding the Forensic Science Laboratory in Ahmedabad.
Gujarat high court on Thursday reserved order till August 12 into the petitions demanding CBI probe in the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
Gujarat high court on Friday gave the special investigation team probing Ishrat Jahan case about a month's time to submit the final report.
The Gujarat High Court on Friday asked the Special Investigation Team to try and complete robe into 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, in one month, and also directed its chairman to probe the retractions of statements by some key witnesses.
R R Verma on Thursday took charge as the fourth chief of the Special Investigation Team probing the Ishrat Jahan police encounter case at the agency's office in Shahibaug area in Ahemedabad.
The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday appointed Rajiv Ranjan Verma, a Bihar cadre Indian Police Service officer, as the fourth chief of the Special Investigation Team probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter, while coming down heavily on the Centre for adopting a "causal approach" in the case.
Three-member Special Investigation Team, constituted by the Gujarat high court to inquire the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, met in Ahmedabad to chalk out the framework of probe.
In what could be a setback to the probe into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police Satyapal Singh, asked to head the Special Investigation Team formed by Gujarat high court, has requested that he be exempted from the responsibility.
Indian Police Service officer G L Singhal, prime suspect in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has been issued a warning by a court hearing the Naroda Patiya riot case after he failed to appear before it despite summons.
A day after the Special Investigation Team concluded that Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in a fake encounter in Ahmedabad, her family members on Tuesday said their stand has been vindicated. "I have always said that my daughter was not at fault and this has been proved by the SIT report. Our demand for a CBI probe into the killing is still pending," Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar told a news conference.
The Gujarat high court on Friday constituted a new special investigations team comprising three Indian Police Services officers to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
The Gujarat high court on Thursday approved the plea of the Special Investigating Team, probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan, seeking copy of Judicial Magistrate S P Tamang's report which had concluded that the encounter was fake.
The Gujarat government on Monday opposed CBI probe into the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, in the Gujarat High Court.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley's reported claim that Ishrat Jahan, killed in an encounter with police in Gujarat in 2004, was a suicide bomber of the terror outfit has been contested by the father of the man killed along with her.
With the Ishrat Jahan encounter case under fresh scrutiny, an organisation formed to bring out the truth about last year's Batla House encounter in New Delhi has sought to put the spotlight on similar encounters across the country.
Slamming the Centre for filing an additional affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case, the Gujarat government called the move as doublespeak aimed at policy of appeasement and vote bank politics.
Defending the Gujarat government in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has accused the Congress of portraying Chief Minister Narendra Modi as anti-Muslim for cheating the minorities.
The appointment of the head of special investigation team to probe the death of college student Ishrat Jahan in an allegedly fake encounter with Gujarat police appears to be jinxed as a third Indian Police Service officer expressed unwillingness to take up the job.
The Gujarat government on Monday informed the high court that they have issued a notification for the formation of a new Special Investigation Team to probe the encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others. A division bench of Justices A M Kapadia and B N Mehta, after the submission of the government pleader, disposed of the contempt of court petition filed by one Gopinath Pillai.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah may not figure as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet which is likely to be filed soon by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on questioned Gujarat Minister of State for Law Pradeepsinh Jadeja in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, sources in the central agency said in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat High Court on Friday directed the Union home secretary to give names of at least three police officers who could be considered to be part of the Special Investigation Team that might probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
In a fresh embarassment to the Narendra Modi government, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further proceedings in the Gujarat High Court relating to the alleged fake encounter killing of a teenaged girl Ishrat Jahan and three others, on suspicion of being terrorists, by the state police.
The Gujarat government on Thursday filed an affidavit in the Gujarat high court questioning the keenness of Central government for a CBI probe on Ishrat Jahan and three others encounter.
Giving a new twist to the Ishrat Jahan case, Satish Verma, a member of the Special Investigation Team, claimed before the Gujarat High Court that the 2004 killings could have taken place in a fake encounter.