Ishrat Case: IB's ex-special director summoned

A special CBI court has issued summons to a retired special director and a superintendent of police rank officer of Intelligence Bureau (IB) in Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The court has asked them to appear before it on July 26 for taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed against them by the CBI in February 2014.

The magisterial court of CBI on June 24 issued the summons to ex-special director Rajinder Kumar and Superintendent of Police rank officer Mukul Sinha who are among the four officers from IB accused in this case. The court issued summons to take cognisance of the chargesheet filed against them for abduction, illegal confinement and conspiring in the killing of Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two alleged Pakistani nationals. They are part of the joint operation conducted by seven accused Gujarat police officers.

The chargesheet against seven Gujarat policemen were filed in 2013 and since then three accused have already been exonerated by the court from facing the trial that includes ex-director general of police P P Pandey, ex-deputy inspector general of Police D G Vanzara and ex-superintendent of police N K Amin.

In the case of four accused IB officers, CBI filed the chargesheet in 2014 with a note that Ministry of Home Affairs, which control the IB, has not given the sanction to prosecution them under section 197 of code of criminal procedure. The chargesheet remained pending in the court.

In December 2017, the magisterial court had issued similar summons to two other accused IB officers including Rajiv Wankhede and Tushar Mittal. Both the officers challenged the summons on the ground that in absence of sanction under section 197 of CrPC, the court can't take cognisance of the chargesheet. The court had allowed their pleas and set aside the summons.