Referring to the fake encounter cases coming out day by day, the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday asked the Gujarat government to investigate such incidents in their root matter and to come clean on such incidents. A Bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam made this statement on the wake of Gujarat government admitting that Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter.

 Court was hearing a plea filed by Rubabuddin to refer the case of the encounter death of his brother Sohrabuddin on November 26, 2005 and the subsequent killing of Sohrabuddin’s wife Kausar Bi to the court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by R.K. Raghavan, who is probing the 2002 Gujarat riot cases.

Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel appearing for Gujarat, strongly opposed this plea and said that a charge sheet was already filed in the case and conducting a fresh investigation would delay the trial as it would prejudice the prosecution case. Also this will create lack of confidence in the entire state judicial system and this can have wider concerns.

Justice Alam said: “The question of referring the matter to the SIT has arisen as there have been allegations that the investigations by the Gujarat police are just an eyewash and an attempt to cover up the conspiracy in the case. The whole integrity of the investigation has been questioned. Till now, you have not explained how Kausar Bi was killed. Her manner of death is unknown.”

He further added “When you [the State] admit that it is a fake encounter, the great concern of the State must also be to go to the bottom of the matter. Why not put such encounter deaths beyond debate? The State should come forward to go beyond all possible debate or controversy. This is no less disturbing. Why don’t you agree to a SIT probe?”