Chief of SIT probing Ishrat killing case wants to be relieved

Ahmedabad, Jun 24 (PTI) Just a week after taking charge
as chief of SIT probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case,
Satyapal Singh, a senior police officer, on Friday requested
Gujarat (western Indian state) High Court to be relieved from
the post citing language problem as one of the reasons.
Singh, a Maharashtra cadre IPS (Indian Police Service)
officer who was the state's ADGP (Law and Order) before taking
the post, also mentioned difference of opinion between two
other SIT members for taking this step.
The court apparently expressing surprise over Singh's
language problem said this barrier should hardly be the reason
to opt out of the probe citing examples of some senior
officers. It however remarked that if the officer has no zeal
to work, then he needs to be relieved.
Singh said there was difference of opinion between the
other two members of the SIT -- Mohan Jha and Satish Verma --
and claimed it would be difficult to rely on them for
investigations.
Singh, who had taken charge as chairman of Special
Investigation Team (SIT) on June 18, gave a letter to the
bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumar in
which he cited language problem because of his inability to
clearly comprehend Gujarati.
"It is not possible for me to clearly understand and
comprehend Gujarati language in which most of the statements
of witnesses and police officers are recorded", Singh added.
Reacting to Singh's letter, Justice Patel said language
barrier should hardly be any reason for opting out of the
investigations.
Citing the case of the Supreme Court-appointed SIT to
look into some cases of the 2002 Godhra riots case, Justice
Patel said though its chief R K Raghvan and member A K
Malhotra did not know Gujarati, they haven't raised such a
point.
He also gave the example of CBI joint director P
Kandaswamy heading the probe into Soharabudin Sheikh fake
encounter killing case.
Justice Patel further said this creates an impression
that the probe in the case is progressing in a "soft-peddling
manner" (tardy pace).