Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case verdict reserved

The Special CBI Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on the discharge plea of two senior retired police officials - D G Vanzara and N K Amin - in the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jehan and three others, for August 4.

Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old college girl from Mumbai was killed along with her friend Javed Shaikh and two Pakistani nationals Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. Almost a dozen senior police officials were charged in the case.

The court on Wednesday concluded hearing Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kauser, who opposed the plea by senior police officials. The police officials for their part had claimed that they were being framed though they were not present at the scene of the incident in 2004. They also cited the acceptance of discharge plea of former acting Director General of Police P P Pandey in the same case.

Plea opposed

The counsel for Ishrat’s mother, Parvez Pathan, on her behalf stated that Ishrat was abducted, kept in illegal confinement and murdered in cold blood by the Gujarat Police officers and later “falsely projected it as an encounter killing”. He also pleaded that the accused cannot be discharged before the supplementary charge sheet pending with the Special CBI court (magisterial) and names of Intelligence Bureau officials, including former Special Director Rajinder Kumar, is placed before this court.

Kauser’s counsel pleaded that eye-witnesses had recorded their statements under Section 164 of the CrPC, which establishes the role of the senior police officials in the case.