'CBI is too slow, let Ishrat case stay with SIT'

During the hearing on the SIT report on Wednesday, particularly on who should investigate the Ishrat Jahan case further, the advocates for the complainants told Gujarat high court that the probe should remain with the current SIT and that the CBI was too slow to probe encounter cases as had been seen in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati cases.

"The CBI is already overburden and is very slow in investigating the earlier cases, so the Ishrat case should be handed over to the present SIT instead of the CBI for further probe," argued Mukul Sinha, advocate for Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed.

Sinha told the court that many posts in CBI were vacant and it would not be in a position to investigate the case properly. The current SIT is very fast in conducting investigation as compared to the CBI investigations in Sohrabuddin and Prajapati cases. The same argument was put forward by IH Saiyad, the advocate for Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat.

While these two advocates argued that the current SIT should probe the case further, the counsel for the government cited strong reasons for handing over the investigation to either CBI or National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"The case comes under the purview of NIA and so there should be no hesitation over giving the investigation to it,'' argued advocate-general Kamal Trivedi.

The amicus curie in the case, Yogesh Lakhani, however told the court that the probe should remain with the current SIT.

At the end of Wednesday's arguments from all sides, the high court reserved the order on who should probe the case further, to December 1.