A special CBI court on Tuesday rejected the discharge applications of retired police officers DG Vanzara and NK Amin in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
Vanzara, a former DIG rank officer, had sought discharge on the ground of parity with former DGP PP Pandey, who was discharged in the case in February for want of evidence.
Amin, on the other hand, sought discharge on the ground that the encounter was genuine and that testimonies of CBI witnesses were not reliable.
While rejecting the discharge applications of the two officers, special judge JK Pandya directed CBI to clarify whether the state government had given sanction for their prosecution.
The court asked that the status of the sanction be brought on record.
Vanzara’s lawyer V D Gajjar said that the court had discharged former DGP Pandey on the grounds that CBI had not sought the government’s sanction to prosecute him, and “the same rules applies to us”.
Amin, who appeared in-person, said that they should never have been prosecuted without sanction under section 197 of CrPC. “If the sanction is not given, the prosecution proceedings will drop,” he said.
Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kauser had opposed the two officers’ discharge pleas. She had alleged that Vanzara had played a “direct and key role” in the conspiracy behind the “staged encounter”.
Ishrat, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra area of Thane, and three others - Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - were killed by police in an encounter on outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
Police had claimed at the time that the four had terror links and plotted to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
The CBI has not initiated the procedure for seeking sanction to prosecute seven officers, including Vanzara and Amin, named as accused.
It had sought Centre’s sanction to prosecute four Intelligence Bureau officials, whose names figured in the supplementary charge sheet, but the Centre had turned down the request.
THEIR DEFENCE: PARITY, GENUINE ENCOUNTER
- DG Vanzara sought parity with ex-DGP PP Pandey, who was discharged in Feb.
- NK Amin said encounter was genuine and that CBI witnesses were not reliable
- Ishrat’s mother alleges Vanzara had played a ‘direct’ role in the ‘staged encounter’
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