Ishrat: Gujarat plea to disband SIT rejected

Dismissing the plea,the SC observed that courts can intervene in exceptional cases. It can constitute a team. We find no reason to interfere with the high court order.

Ishrat was killed in an alleged police encounter along with three others in Ahmedabad on June 15,2004.

The police alleged that all four were Lashkar-e-Toiba LeT operatives planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Challenging the HC order,the Gujarat government described its predicament in the case as that of a state caught in a cross-fire.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi used the expression while arguing how the State of Gujarat was both the prosecuting agency and the accused in the case because of the fact that its own police officers were charged with allegedly staging the encounter.

The state is caught in a cross-fire,between being a victim and an accused, Rohatgi told a Bench of Justices Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar.

Rohatgi criticised the high court order,contending that little regard was paid to the Gujarat governments efforts to constitute a Special Task Force and a Monitoring Authority on September 16,2010 to deal with all cases of police encounters.

This totally different SIT, Rohatgi submitted,includes only one officer suggested by the state.

There will be cross-allegations in every case, Rohatgi said,challenging the authority of the high court to intervene in state investigations.

 No one has ever made any allegation of bias against its members, the governments affidavit said. But the apex court dismissed the governments challenge.