Ishrat case: Constable files complaint against SIT member

A police constable has lodged a complaint against a senior police officer and member of the SIT, probing Ishrat Jahan encounter case, of illegal confinement and coercion to register a false statement in connection with the sensitive case.

Vijay Kumar Mishra, presently posted at Shahibaug police station, accused joint commissioner of police (JCP) Satish Verma, also a member of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, of illegal confinement and duress.

The complaint, filed with Shahibaug police station also named two other police officers besides Verma for 'threatening him to give statement according to their instructions' in connection with the 2004 encounter case.

Verma, however, could not be reached for his version on the complaint.

Mishra was posted with the city Crime Branch in 2004 as a wireless operator of the official vehicle of the then assistant commissioner of police, Dr Narendra Amin, who was involved in the Ishrat encounter.

The constable alleged that on February 24, 2011, he was summoned by Inspector of Shaibaug police station who wanted to enquire with him about an FIR.

According to the complaint, Mishra was then taken to bungalow no 15 located at Shahibaug Dafnala, which is also the office of the SIT, where Verma started enquiring with him about the Ishrat case.

Mishra further said that the police officials present there threatened of making him an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case if he did comply with them.

The constable said he was detained by the officials there for around four hours.

Mishra said besides filing the complaint he has also apprised the SIT chairman about it.

Ishrat Jahan, along with three others namely Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, was killed on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The crime branch officers had claimed that the four were members of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and were on a mission to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

They had further claimed that the encounter was carried out after receiving intelligence inputs from Centre.

The Gujarat high court had formed an SIT in September last year to probe the encounter following a petition seeking CBI enquiry, filed by Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar and Gopinath Pillai, father of one of the deceased Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai.