After almost a year since the Supreme Court set up a special CBI team to probe 41 cases of alleged fake encounter killings by Army, Assam Rifles and Manipur Police, the agency filed the first lot of two chargesheets in the case on Monday and assured the apex court of completing the entire investigation by early next year.

Not satisfied by the slow pace of investigation, the apex court had summoned CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma to court and wished to know the causes for delay and remedial measures, if any. Verma admitted that since the cases had earlier been probed by way of Commission of enquiry, judicial enquiry and enquiry conducted by National Human Rights Commission, initial time was lost in gathering documents.

The Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and UU lalit insisted upon a timeline following which CBI Director assured the court of filing chargesheets in seven cases by August 10. As regards remaining cases, efforts will be made to complete probe by year end while in 14 out of 41 cases, he said, investigation could spill over to the next year. At the instance of the court, the Director agreed to spare more officers for assisting the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Joint Director Sharad Agarwal that is probing the cases.

Disclosing the contents of the two chargesheets filed on Monday, Verma told the court that 14 out of the 15 accused in the FIR have been found guilty of murder (302), criminal conspiracy (120B), and destruction of evidence (201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Bench posted the matter for August 20 to monitor the progress and requested Director to be present on that date.