Two encounters, in which five persons were gunned down by Gujarat police who claimed they were terrorists and conspired to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi, have turned out to be "fake" while in another shootout, the High Court has ordered a CBI probe to assess its genuineness.

The first encounter to be declared as "fake" was that of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, which took place in November 2005 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Police had then claimed Sheikh was a terrorist and had come to kill Modi.

In 2007, a special team formed by Gujarat police, on the directions of the Supreme Court, had concluded that the shootout was stage-managed and arrested three IPS officers.

Seventeen persons, including former Gujarat minister Amit Shah and four suspended IPS officers - D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N, Rajkumar Pandian and Abhay Chudasama, have been arrested for the fake encounter killing of Sheikh and murder of his wife Kausar Bi, a witness in the high-profile case.

Another police encounter that was declared fake was that of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan and three others in 2004.

The High Court today said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) it had constituted for assessing the genuineness of the Ishrat encounter killing had concluded that it was fake and done prior to the date and time mentioned in the FIR.

According to FIR, Ishrat (19) and three others - Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar ? were killed in an exchange of fire with police near here on June 15, 2004. Ahmedabad Crime Branch had claimed they were LeT terrorists who had come to kill Modi.