Pune/Ahmedabad/Mumbai: As the killing of three alleged Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists including a Mumbra-based Ishrat Jahan Sheikh in an encounter in Ahmedabad on June 15 came under a cloud, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today (June 18, 2004) said State police is capable of carrying out the probe while the mother of the girl demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry.

Claiming that Maharashtra Police is competent to carry out the probe into the encounter, Shinde told reporters in Pune that he is not asking for CBI inquiry at this juncture as the police is investigating the matter.

"CBI or any other agencies can go into the details. But I am not asking for it now because the police investigation is going on. Besides, the State police is capable of carrying out investigations," he said.

When asked about the doubts which are being raised about the genuineness of the encounter, Shinde said, "It would not be proper to doubt it (the encounter) as investigations are going on."

Meanwhile, Shamima Jahan Sheikh, mother of Ishrat, demanded a CBI probe into the encounter claiming her daughter was completely innocent.

"My daughter was innocent and not involved in any terrorist activity as alleged by the Crime Branch," Sheikh told reporters outside the post-mortem room at the civil hospital in Ahmedabad.

She denied intelligence claims in Mumbai that Ishrat was being tracked by policemen on eight other occasions and also any links between her daughter and Javed, who was also killed in the shootout.