Ishrat Jahan and three of her friends - Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani - were killed by officials of Ahmedabad DCB in an encounter on June 15, 2004.
The Supreme Court order upholding the Gujarat high court's decision to set up a special investigation team (SIT) for the Ishrat Jahan encounter case has given new hope of justice to the kin of four people killed in the incident. It has also struck fear in the heart of some trigger-happy policemen of the state.
Ishrat Jahan and three of her friends - Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani - were killed by officials of Ahmedabad DCB in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004.
Mukul Sinha, lawyer of Pranesh Pillai's father Gopinath Pillai, welcomed the Supreme Court order and said, "Now the state government should issue a notification as early as possible, about the SIT constituted by the high court for the Ishrat case."
In 2005, Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat, and Gopinath Pillai sought a CBI inquiry into the encounter. Later, metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang, who conducted a judicial inquiry into the incident, gave a report in which he stated that the encounter in which four people were killed was 'cold-blooded murder'. Tamang also named 20 police officers as being responsible for the allegedly fake encounter.
Among the police officers named in Tamang's report are: the then DCB chief PP Pandey, the then Ahmedabad police commissioner KR Kaushik, former chief of anti-terrorist squad (ATS) DG Vanzara, former ACP of the detection of crime branch NK Amin, DCP of anti-terrorist squad GL Singhal, and the 'encounter specialist' Tarun Barot. Vanzara and Amin are currently in jail as accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
On September 24, 2010, the Gujarat high court had ordered the constitution of an SIT comprising three IPS officers. The court had named joint commissioner of Delhi police Karnal Singh as head of the team, and two IPS officers of Gujarat cadre - Mohan Jha and Satish Verma - as the other members of the SIT.
The Gujarat government, however, had challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court and had demanded investigation of the case by an SIT constituted by the state.
Regarding when the notification about the HC-appointed SIT be issued, Gujarat DGP SS Khandwawala said the police department was not involved in issuing notifications. "It is up to the state government and the court. If we are asked to extend any support for the investigation team, we will definitely extend our co-operation," he said.
Shamima Kausar has already filed a petition before the Gujarat high court and has demanded that contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the state government as the government had failed to form the SIT as directed by the high court.
It will now be interesting to see when the state government issues a notification announcing the setting up of the SIT for the Ishrat case.
The fateful encounter in which Mumbai-girl Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in June 2004 was carried out by officials of the Ahmedabad detection of crime branch (DCB) near the Kotarpur waterworks. The DCB had claimed that the four had come to Gujarat to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi.
Magistrate SP Tamang's report has already put some police officers of the state in the dock. Now, after six years of the incident, all eyes are now on the outcome of the investigation conducted by the SIT headed by Karnal Singh.
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