Court allows STF to quizz jailed cops in Samir Khan encounter

Allowing a plea filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Task Force (STF), a CBI court here today granted permission to interrogate in jail the Gujarat police officers in the 2002 Samir Khan Pathan encounter case.
Special CBI judge C R Thakkar permitted the STF to interrogate the jailed policemen, including the suspended Deputy Superitendents of Police (DySPs) Tarun Barot and J G Parmar and retired DySP K M Waghela for two days next week.
The CBI court has also asked the STF to intimate jail authorities before the interrogation.
Samir Khan Pathan encounter killing is one the 17 alleged fake encounter cases being probed by H S Bedi-headed STF appointed by the Supreme Court to probe encounter cases in Gujarat.

The STF had filed the application to interrogate the state police officials Tarun Barot, K M Waghela and J G Parmar who have been arrested in Sadiq Jamal Mehtar and Ishrat Jahan encounter cases being probed by CBI.
Barot is lodged in Nadiad Sub-jail while the other two are in Sabarmati central jail. They are at present in judicial custody.
Samir Khan Pathan was killed on October 22, 2002 near Usmanpura garden in the city by a team of the crime branch headed by the then Police Inspector Tarun Barot and others.
Police had claimed that Samir Khan was a terrorist who wanted to take revenge for 2002 riots at the behest of some Pakistani terror outfits.