Dave also sought to raise a demand of compensation for Sohrabuddin Sheikh's friend Tulsiram Prajapati, who too had allegedly been shot dead by the Gujarat police team in another staged gun battle.

But the plea did not evoke any response from the bench, while the state government too asserted that it does admit the allegations that Prajapati's killing was extra-judicial.

The bench deferred the issue of transferring the case to the special probe panel after Rohtagi asserted that the state government was not amenable to transfer the probe and said he would like to argue on the legal issues involved.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Kausar Bi and Prajapati were killed after their alleged abduction by the Gujarat police.

Then deputy inspector general D.G. Vanzara had announced Sohrabuddin Sheikh's killing in a police shootout, dubbing him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

However, the state government admitted the killings were staged. In a subsequent probe, police have arrested Vanzara and three other senior police officers, who are still behind the bars.

The killings had become a major issue of debate between Modi and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the run-up to the state assembly elections in December 2007.