SC declines to admit plea against SIT member

A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu refused to admit the petition of Gopinath Pillai, father of Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, who was among the four killed in the Ishrat Jahan encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on 15 June, 2004.The bench said that Pillai’s petition was pre-mature and asked him to wait for some time to see if any action is taken on his complaint. Pillai has approached the apex court against the dismissal of his petition by the Gujarat High Court in September last year. Pillai, in his petition, had sought action against SIT member Mohan Jha for allegedly influencing the witnesses in the case.

His petition claimed that the list of witnesses submitted by the CBI along with the charge sheet indicated that senior Gujarat police officer Jha had pressured witnesses to retract from their statements. The CBI had filed its charge sheet against Gujarat’s suspended DSP N K Amin and six other police officers, alleging that Mumbai-based Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were killed in a fake encounter in 2004. Six other police officers include IPS officer G L Singhal, retired DSP J G Parmar, Mehsana Deputy SP Tarun Barot and commando Anaju Chaudhary.