The Gujarat High Court had ordered Tirodkar, a former journalist with a Mumbai-based tabloid, to remain present in the court today as CBI, which is probing the Sadiq Jamal encounter case, wants to question him.
The CBI lawyer said it had yet to examine Tirodkar who was not cooperating. To which, Justice M R Shah had said that in that case, the agency should arrest him or start the process of seizing his properties.
Jamal, a resident of Bhavnagar, was killed by state police in the alleged fake encounter in Ahmedabad on January 13, 2003. Police had claimed Sadiq was a Lashar-e-Taiba operative and was on a "mission" to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.
The genuineness of the encounter became an issue after Tirodkar filed an affidavit before a court in Mumbai that he was a witness to Sadiq's hand-over to Gujarat police by the 'encounter specialist' officer Daya Nayak of Mumbai police a few days before the alleged encounter.
The High Court had last June ordered a CBI probe following a petition of Sabbir Jamal, Sadiq's brother.