New Delhi, Aug 3 - The sensational killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in an alleged fake gun battle and the murder of his wife and a friend are likely to be probed by the Supreme Court's Special Investigations Team (SIT), which is inquiring the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.

The Supreme Court Monday ordered that the 2005 killings by the Gujarat police will be investigated by the probe panel headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director R.K. Raghavan.

Sohrabuddin was shot dead by the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in November 2005. Soon after, Sohrabuddin's wife Kausar Bi went missing. It was alleged that his wife and other witness Tulsiram Prajapati were also killed by the police to destroy evidence.

A bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Aftab Alam decided in principle to hand over the Sheikh's killing probe to the Raghavan panel, which is presently probing the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, bureaucrats and politicians in fomenting the communal trouble in the state.

The formal order for transfer of the probe of Sheikh's killing from the state police will be issued next Tuesday.

The bench also asked the Gujarat government to be prepared for an ad-hoc compensation to Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh, who is a third-stage cancer patient and is terminally ill.