Hearing of a plea seeking reinvestigation of the Samir Khan Pathan “encounter” case by an “impartial agency” has been deferred to August 18 by the Metropolitan Court here. The plea was filed by Pathan’s cousin Sahishta Khan.

Metropolitan Magistrate T V Joshi deferred the hearing on the grounds that IG (Prisons), Ahmedabad, Tirthraj was on medical leave from August 6 to 16. In a sting operation, Tirthraj had claimed he had evidence in the case. Based on an application filed by Sahishta Khan’s lawyer, I M Munshi, the Metropolitan Court had issued summons to Tirthraj on August 6.

Pathan was killed on October 22, 2002, 10 days after he was arrested by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB). At the time, the DCB had claimed that Pathan was a Jaish-e-Mohammed operative and was on a mission to kill Modi.