Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Monday constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former city additional commissioner of police, crime, Sandeep Shandilya, to investigate the Alair encounter.

Opposition parties, however, alleged that this was an attempt to avoid a CBI investigation and accused the government of trying to bail out the police officers involved in the alleged fake encounter.

Calling it an eye wash, Congress leader and leader of Opposition in the TS Legislative Council, Mr Mohammed Ali Shabbir, said, “The CM is just trying to hush up the matter by ordering a SIT probe. It is highly condemnable that he is making light of the killing of five Muslim youths in an “encounter”, especially as doubts have been raised from all quarters over the veracity of the police claim.”

He compared the CM’s action with Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi stating that as Mr Modi had rejected demands for an independent probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots, Mr Rao is opposing a CBI probe into the Alair encounter.

Majlis Bachao Tahreek (MBT) leaders also opposed the move. “The circumstantial evidences, post-mortem report and other forensic evidences clearly point out that the Alair encounter was fake. By ordering a SIT probe, KCR is trying to bail out guilty police personnel,” said MBT leader Mr Amjed Ullah Khan.

BJP leaders too said that constituting a SIT when there already was a magisterial inquiry on the issue was an attempt to appease certain communities.

AICC general secretary Mr Digvijay Singh, MIM chief Mr Asaduddin Owaisi and several others including human rights activists had demanded a CBI probe into the incident.