Ahmedabad, September 10: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday granted a stay on the report of the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate, S.P. Tamang, declaring the June 2004 police encounter with Ishrat Jehan and three others “fake.” A Division Bench, comprising Justices Kalpesh Jhaveri and Z.K. Sayed, also directed the Registrar-General to institute a departmental inquiry into the conduct of Mr. Tamang in holding a parallel inquiry , when the High Court was already seized of the matter, and submitting the report without its permission.
The High Court, however, allowed the report to be submitted before the three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the top police officers appointed by it, to take a fresh look at the encounter episode. The SIT would be required to act on the report “on merit.”
–Agencies