Sadiq Jamal Mehtar encounter case: All seven accused policemen stand discharged

Representative image. Credit: iStock Photo

The 2003 encounter case of 19-year-old Sadiq Jamal Mehtar on Tuesday was virtually closed after Gujarat High Court discharged a retired deputy superintendent of police (DySP) from the case, who was the last accused facing the trial.

With this, all seven accused policemen, out of eight, stand discharged from the case. One of the accused had died during pendency.

The encounter case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following the high court order. The case may not go to trial as CBI most likely wouldn't challenge the discharge order. The central agency hasn't challenged previous discharge orders of six other accused policemen.

Sadiq's brother Shabbir Jamal had challenged the discharge orders of several accused policemen in high court but he had withdrawn it without giving any reason. CBI's stand is almost similar to what the agency had in Ishrat Jahan encounter case, where it didn't challenge the discharge orders of the accused policemen in high courts, leading to closure of the case.

The single bench of justice Gita Gopi allowed the discharge application of retired DySP Irshadali Anwarali Saiyed. He was accused of shooting Mehtar at the scene of the alleged encounter in Ahmedabad. The other six who were discharged previously are Tarun Barot, K M Vaghela, G H Gohil, Chhtrasinh Chudasama, R L Mavani and Ajaypal Yadav. The eighth accused, retired DySP J G Parmar, was abated after he passed away during pendency.

In 2012, CBI chargesheeted the cops for allegedly killing the Bhavnagar youth, Sadiq, in 2003 while branding him as a terrorist who wanted to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders to avenge atrocities on Muslims during 2002 post-Godhra riots. The central agency was expected to file a supplementary chargesheet against several senior IPS officers and officers from Intelligence Bureau (IB) for their roles in the alleged encounter.

CBI investigation had claimed that on January 2, 2003, police inspector Tarun Barot with the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) took custody of Sadiq from the Mumbai Police and brought him to Ahmedabad. On January 12, he was taken to the Sai Baba Complex near Galaxy cinema in Naroda, Ahmedabad where he was allegedly shot dead at around 1.15 am.

CBI claimed that it was the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Mumbai which first generated an intelligence input claiming that Sadiq was closely associated with the underworld and was planning to kill BJP leaders. The CBI chargesheet claimed that Sadiq was handed over to Gujarat police's custody, and he was arrested “in a stage-managed joint operation” conducted by the SIB, Mumbai and Central Intelligence Unit, Andheri, of Mumbai police.

Sadiq was also reported to have worked as domestic help for gangster Tariq Parveen, a close associate of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, at his home in Mumbai and then in Dubai between 1996 to October 2002.