Ishrat Jahan Encounter Was Fake: CBI

AHMEDABAD: Nine years after Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed, the CBI on Wednesday charged seven Gujarat police officers in the case, terming the encounter as “fake” and in “cold blood”, in what could spell more trouble for the Narendra Modi government.
Filing its first chargesheet in the case, the CBI described the encounter as a “joint operation” by Gujarat police and the Intelligence Bureau, and said the role of its special director Rajinder Kumar and three other officers was still being probed.
Kumar, posted as joint director of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau ( SIB) in Gujarat at the time of the encounter, was said to have generated intelligence about terrorists of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba having sneaked into Gujarat to assassinate Modi.
The chargesheet is, however, silent on whether the four killed were terrorists.
Those against whom the chargesheet was filed for murder and criminal conspiracy include absconding Additional DGP PP Pandey and suspended DIG D G Vanzara.
“The encounter was a joint operation between Gujarat police and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the state,” CBI said in the chargesheet, adding, “the encounter was fake and in cold blood”.
The CBI told the court of additional chief judicial magistrate HS Khutwad that their investigation has established offence against all seven police officers charged in the case.
Besides Kumar, the investigation is going on against three other IB officers P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede, it said.
A supplementary chargesheet would be filed once the investigation was over, the court was told.
Apart from Pandey and Vanzara other Gujarat police officers who have been charge-sheeted are GL Singhal, Tarun Barot, NK Amin, JG Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary.
Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra in Thane district adjoining Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the alleged encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

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