Gujarat high court decided to form a team of three high ranking police officers to probe the encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others that took place in 2004 near Ahmedabd airport.
In what may come as a setback for the state government, Gujarat high court on Friday decided to form a team of three high ranking police officers to bring out the truth behind the encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others that took place on June 15, 2004 near Ahmedabd airport. The police had floated a theory that the four were on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.
The high court decision comes on a petition filed by Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar, seeking a CBI investigation and also compensation.
The petition alleged that the four persons were killed in a staged encounter by the Ahmedabad crime branch. Justice Kalpesh Jhaveri asked the government to furnish details about the police officers of the rank of ADGP (additional director-general of police) on August 12.
During hearing of the petition on Friday, Justice Jhaveri refused to hand over the investigation to the CBI by showing some reservations. He, however, suggested to initiate a probe by a team of police officers of the rank of ADGP.
“The role of the police officers who participated in the encounter can be probed by the high ranking police officers and they will furnish a report before this court,” said Justice Jhaveri.
Shamima’s counsels Mukul Sinha and Shilpa Shah accepted the court’s proposal. However, they said: “There should be at least one police officer of our choice in the team.”
The judge then replied: “The issue can be considered after the state government furnishes the details of the officers and their accessibility to probe the incident. The team may have three or even five officers.” The judge then instructed government counsel JM Panchal to furnish the details of the police officers on August 12.
As the case history goes, in the early morning of June 15, 2004, a team of Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) gunned down four persons — Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai of Mumbai, Ishrat Jahan Raza, a student from Mumbra in Thane district, and two alleged Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali Rana and Jisan Johar.
The DCB claimed that the four were alleged terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba and were on mission to assassinate chief minister Modi.
The four had come from Mumbai in a blue-coloured Indica car. The DCB team intercepted the car at Kotarpur water works near the airport and the four were killed during exchange of fire.
The encounter took place when DG Vanzara was an additional commissioner of police and NK Amin and assistant commissioner of police in the DCB. Both Vanzara and Amin are now lodged in Sabarmati jail in the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh.
Sohrabuddin was gunned down in November 2005, when both Vanzara and Amin were with ATS.
Shamima had filed a writ petition in October 2004 before the Gujarat high court, raising doubts over the way the encounter happened. Shamima contended that her daughter was killed by the police in a staged encounter and therefore the probe against the police officers should be handed over to the CBI.
Earlier, Pranesh’s father Gopinathan Pillai, who had moved the Supreme Court raising doubts over the encounter, had been asked by the apex court to join as a respondent in the case being heard by the high court.
Case history Ishrat and three others were gunned down in an encounter on June 15, 2004 near Ahmedabad airport.
Crime Branch had said the four were on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.
Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar had sough a CBI investigation and also compensation.
The encounter took place when DG Vanzara and NK Amin were with DCB. They are now in jail in the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh.
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