Court asks for SIT to probe arms haul convict’s ‘escape’

Two years after Abdul Naeem Shaikh, an accused in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, went missing, the Bombay high court on Monday directed that a special investigation team (SIT) be set up under the joint director of the CBI (Chhattisgarh) to investigate allegations made in the habeas corpus petition filed by Shaikh’s mother.

A division bench of Justice Naresh H Patil and Justice Prakash Deu Naik directed that the SIT be set up to probe the allegations made in the petition. It also directed that the SIT submit its report on October 24.

Earlier, however, the court had been informed that a separate SIT, headed by the deputy superintendent of police, had been constituted to trace Shaikh, apart from prize money of Rs 20,000 being announced for information on the fugitive’s whereabouts. The court had directed that this SIT submit its report in August.

On Monday, though, the court directed that a new SIT be formed.

According to the Chhattisgarh police, Shaikh had escaped from custody in August 2014 while being brought to Mumbai to be produced before a special MCOCA court in connection with the arms haul case.

Shaikh’s mother, Qamar Nasreen, has, however, refuted these allegations. She has said in her petition that she strongly suspects that the police has either killed her son in a fake encounter or has kept him in illegal custody so that they can implicate him in some other false case.

Ms Nasreen’s lawyer had pointed out several loopholes in the police’s version. He said, for instance, that three different government agencies had given three different timings for Shaikh’s escape. That apart, the lawyer also asked how it was that despite five to six policemen escorting Shaikh and getting the same berth as him on the train, no one had taken the step of handcuffing him.