Thaindian News

Gandhinagar, April 20 (IANS) The Gujarat government Wednesday approached the Gujarat High Court with a proposal to set up a task force to probe the killing of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba militant who was killed in 2003 in a shootout with the state police.

The state government had all along maintained that the case did not merit a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, as demanded by Sadiq’s brother.

Justice M.R. Shah would April 25 decide whether the state government’s plea of setting up the task force, presided over by a retired supreme court judge, should be considered as the court has already reserved judgment in the case.

During the hearing Wednesday, government pleader P.K. Jani informed the court that the government had constituted a special task force presided over by retired Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah.

The court also said it could not take cognizance of the affidavit as the arguments had been concluded and the judgment reserved.

Justice M.R. Shah asked Jani to take consent of the all parties if he wished to bring the government’s affidavit on record.

Mukul Sinha, counsel for Sadiq’s brother Shabbir, argued: “The affidavit of the government does not disclose purpose to constitute the STF.”

Sadiq Jamal Mehtar was killed in a police shootout in Naroda in 2003. Officers of the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) claimed that he was on a mission to eliminate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

However, Sadiq’s brother Shabbir has alleged that Ketan Tirodkar, a journalist, had revealed before a Mumbai court that his brother was in custody of Mumbai crime banch officer Daya Nayak.

Nayak then handed over Sadiq to the Gujarat police, who then killed him by staging the shootout.