Ahmedabad, December 01: The Gujarat high court on Thursday ordered CBI probe in fake encounter of Mumbra girl Ishrat Jahan and three others. The court has directed SIT to file a fresh FIR and hand over the subsequent probe to the central agency.
While ordering the CBI probe, the division bench of the HC noted that the case is “exceptional one having national ramifications.” The court has also held that the Gujarat police cannot be trusted to carry out impartial probe in the case.
The SIT on November 18 had told the high court that the controversial encounter was staged shootout, as the police version did not match the forensic and medical evidence on record. Earlier in January this year, SIT member and Gujarat IPS officer Satish Verma had told the court in an affidavit that the encounter was fake and a fresh FIR should be registered against the cops involved in the case.
The SIT’s FIR is likely to name over 20 police officials involved in the controversial encounter case. Among those likely to figure in the FIR are suspended IPS officer DG Vanjara who led the team which executed the shootout while Additional DG PP Pande may also face troubles as he was supervising the encounter as joint commissioner, crime branch of Ahmedabad police.
This is the fourth fake encounter case the central agency CBI has been asked to probe. The investigating agency is already investigating Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati cases, both handed over to it by the Apex Court while Gujarat HC had asked CBI probe in another Sadiq Jamal encounter case.
Ishrat and three others were killed by the Ahmedabad police on June 15, 2004 and the police claimed that the four were affiliated with Pakistan based LeT and were tasked with a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Ishrat Jehan’s family had sought a CBI probe into the case but the Modi government had opposed it and as a result SIT headed by outside officer was created to probe.
-PTI