Cop accused of shooting Ishrat and Sadiq in encounters passes away

One of the key accused in the Ishrat Jahan and Sadiq Jamal encounter cases retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) J G Parmar passed away at his home in Mehsana district due to a prolonged illness, his lawyer informed the special CBI court on Wednesday. Parmar, in his mid-70s, was suffering from age-related illness.

He was among seven accused policemen arrested by the CBI in 2013 for gunning down 19-years-old Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two alleged Pakistani nationals Amjadali Rana and Zeeshan Johar in June 2004.

Parmar was part of the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) squad who participated in the firing. The CBI charge sheet stated that he had fired four rounds from his service revolver.

Parmar was the complainant in the case registered by DCB in 2004 claiming that Ishrat and three others were Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who had come to Ahmedabad to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi and other saffron leaders to avenge the killing of Muslims in the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

CBI had charge-sheeted seven Gujarat policemen including IPS officer P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, both retired, G L Singhal retired Superintendent of Police N K Amin, retired Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot and sub-inspector Anaju Chaudhary. The special CBI court has discharged Pandey, Vanzara, and Amin from the trial on various grounds including want of government sanction for prosecuting them.

His role in Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, a resident of Bhavnagar, encounter in 2003 was almost identical. In this case, he had fired several shots at Sadiq and later became a complainant in the FIR which stated that Sadiq was a "terrorist" who wanted to kill Modi and other BJP leaders. In this case, he was among the eight accused booked by CBI.

During the online hearing on Wednesday, Parmar's lawyer Brijrajsinh Jhala informed the court that Parmar passed away on September 21. He said that once the rituals are over, death certificates will be produced before the court. Once the lawyer will submit the death certificate along with a note (pursis), Parmar will be abated from the charges.

Sources close to Parmar said that the last rite was performed at his ancestral village Kansa in Visnagar taluka of Mehsana district. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.