Gujrat, India (July 04, 2013): A 19-year-old girl named Ishrat Jahan was killed along with three others (all men) by Gujarat Police in 2004. The police had claimed that all were connected to ‘terrorist activities’ and were killed in an encounter. But now the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has concluded that Ishrat Jahan was not connected to any terrorist activities, and further that she was killed in a fake/staged encounter. CBI reportedly filed a charge-sheet in this matter on July 03, 2013.
According to Times of India (TOI): “The CBI has charged the Narendra Modi government and the Intelligence Bureau with the fake encounter of 19-year-old Mumbra college student Ishrat Jahan and three others in June 2004. In its charge-sheet filed on Wednesday, the CBI said Ishrat Jahan was branded a terrorist out to kill Modi and shot the four in ‘cold blood’.”
“The CBI chargesheet turns the heat on the Modi government as well as the IB. Although no IB officer has been named, it has accused the agency of providing the weapons to place them on the bodies of the encounter victims. The CBI will file a second chargesheet on July 26, and there are expectations that some IB officers may be named then. Modi and his close aide Amit Shah have not been named in the chargesheet”, a TOI news report reads.
According to Daily News and Analysis (DNA): “CBI sources said here although the agency has not mentioned antecedents of either of four individuals — Javed Sheikh, Ishrat Jahan, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar — killed in the encounter on June 15, 2004, it plans to give a detailed report on the conspiracy which led to the extra-judicial killings in the supplementary charge sheet”.
“The sources said the agency has also found during its probe that the FIR of the encounter, in which four persons were killed on June 15, 2004, was prepared before the encounter took place by the Gujarat Police”, a DNA news report reads further.
As per media reports, the CBI found in its investigation that Ishrat accompanied Sheikh on his trip to Ahmedabad where they were allegedly picked by officials of subsidiary intelligence bureau, state unit of country’s snooping agency Intelligence Bureau, and Gujarat Crime Branch officials.
“The sources said Ishrat and Javed were allegedly picked up from Vasad in Gujarat three-four days before the fake encounter and kept at a farmhouse in the illegal custody of SIB and Gujarat Crime Branch officials” DNA report adds.
According to TOI: “The four were taken to a place near Kotarpur waterworks, the encounter spot, on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 and were killed in cold blood,” says 1,500-page chargesheet which was filed in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate H S Khutwad.
It is learnt that the accused include absconding additional DGP P P Pandey and DIG D G Vanzara, who is already charged with murder in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounters. The others are, G L Singhal, N K Amin, Tarun Barot, J G Parmar, constables Anaju Chaudhary and Mohan Kalasawa – the last one having died in between. Singhal has apparently cooperated with the CBI during the probe and helped the agency achieve some crucial breakthroughs.
As per media reports the chargesheet called the killing a joint operation of the Gujarat police and the IB.
The role of Rajinder Kumar, who was then the state IB boss and now IB special director, was still being probed to ascertain whether he generated a fake terror alert that led to the encounter.