Court refuses to order judicial probe in encounter case

Refusing to order judicial probe into the alleged fake encounter of one Mohammad Ali in 2006 by the state Anti Terrorism Squad, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the petitioner to approach police with his complaint.

Ethesham Siddiqui in his petition before the high court had claimed that he had seen Ali in ATS's custody a day before he was killed in an encounter on August 22, 2006.

Ali, who was shot dead by Maharashtra ATS in a building in suburban Wadala, was accused of being a Pakistani militant. Ethesham, who is himself an accused in the 7/11 serial train blasts case, has alleged in his petition that Ali was detained by ATS a day before the alleged encounter and was being interrogated at it's Kalachowkie office in south Mumbai.

The petition had sought for a judicial inquiry to be initiated in the incident. A division bench of Justices S A Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar refused to order judicial probe and said the petitioner could approach the police first.

"We cannot order judicial probe without any investigation done by the police. You (petitioner) have the remedy of approaching the police first," the court said. Subsequently, Ethsham's lawyer Naima Shaikh, withdrew the petition.