Gujarat high court cites SIT report, says Ishrat and three others were killed before the time of death stated in the FIR filed in 2004
Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan and three others were not killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004, near Ahmedabad. They were killed earlier and the encounter was staged.
This is what the Special Investigative Team, appointed by the Gujarat high court, told the court on Monday.
Hearing the news, Ishrat’s family members in Mumbra, Thane, said the guilty policemen should be hanged and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi should give an explanation. “What did Modi get by killing my daughter?” asked Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar Jehan. “We had full faith in the judiciary. Now it has been proved that my daughter was killed in a fake encounter. Can Modi give back my daughter?”
Ishrat’s brother Raza Anwar Iqbal said the guilty policemen deserve capital punishment. “Also, those who ordered the fake encounter should not be allowed to get away scot-free,” he said. “Modi should tell us why my sister was killed.”
The bench of justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari initially said a fresh FIR under section 302 (murder) of the IPC should be filed to investigate the motive behind the fake encounter and to book the guilty cops. Later, hearing the Gujarat government, which opposed the filing of a fresh FIR, and petitioners who wanted a fresh FIR, the court decided to pronounce the final order on Wednesday.
The bench will also decide which agency would pursue the case. It has sought the Union home ministry’s opinion on whom to hand over the investigations - the Central Bureau of Investigations or the National Investigation Agency.
The SIT said in its report that Jahan, 19, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed earlier than the shootout date of June 15, 2004. The police had then claimed that the four belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and they were in the city with the intention to kill Modi. They had also said that Rana and Johar were Pakistani nationals.
“All three members of the SIT have unanimously concluded that the encounter was not genuine and an FIR should be filed under section 302 and investigation should be done by the CBI or the NIA,” Patel said at the beginning of the hearing on the Monday.
Twenty-one policemen, including four IPS officers - then joint commissioner PP Pande, suspended deputy inspector general DG Vanzara, then assistant commissioners GL Singhal and NK Amin - were involved in the staged shootout.
Citing the report, Patel said, “The time of death as stated in the FIR (filed in 2004 after the encounter) and the actual time of death seem to be different. Even the place of death seems to be different than what is shown in the FIR.”
(With inputs from Devendra Goregaonkar and Agencies)
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