Ishrat Jahan encounter: Order reserved on discharge of four accused policemen

A special CBI court on Tuesday reserved the order on discharge applications moved by four policemen accused in the Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The court is likely to pronounce the order on October 23. The other three accused cops have already been discharged from a trial that includes ex IPS officers P P Pandey and D G Vanzara.

The special judge V R Raval reserved the order after concluding the arguments which were held virtually. The applications have been moved by accused IPS officer G L Singhal, retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Tarun Barot, ex DySP J G Parmar and Sub-Inspector Anaju Chaudhary. Parmar passed away last month. The CBI on Tuesday produced a verification report along with a death certificate of Parmar following an order issued by the court.

The accused policemen have moved separate applications but have similar prayers on identical grounds including parity with ex IPS officers Vanzara, Amin and ex-Director General of Police Pandey who has been discharged already.

In the case of Vanzara and Amin, the CBI court discharged them on the ground the Gujarat government refused to grant sanction under section 197 of code of criminal procedure mandated for prosecuting government servants.

The state government had denied permission on the ground of "larger public interest" and that Ishrat Jahan was an "operative of Pakistan-based terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba."

During the hearing in the past, Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser submitted in writing in the court saying that she has left the case at the mercy of CBI to prosecute all 11 accused policemen and officers from Intelligence Bureau. She stated that she felt "hopeless and helpless" that even after 15 years of her daughter's murder trial has "barely started."

In the discharge pleas, the four accused have said, "It is also made expressly clear that the present application has been filed only on the ground of non-existence of requisite sanction under section 197 of code of criminal procedure, 1973 without entering into the merits of the case and the accused crave leave to file a separate application for discharge on merits if such occasion arises in future."

They have argued in their pleas that previous orders that exonerated Pandey, Vanzara and Amin have not been challenged in the high court and therefore those orders have attained finality. As a matter of fact, the CBI has told the court in writing that it would not challenge those orders.