Ishrat encounter case: CBI files status report in Gujarat HC

CBI today filed a status report in the Gujarat High Court on its probe in the Ishrat Jehan fake encounter killing case of 2004.

“Today, the agency submitted the status report in a sealed cover as per the court’s instructions and hearing will be taken up tomorrow,” said CBI lawyer Yogesh Rawani.

CBI, which was directed by the High Court last year to probe the case, had earlier filed an application seeking a direction to the state government to extend the services of IPS officer Satish Verma for six months.

On December 10, a division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari asked the agency to first show what progress had been made in the probe.

The bench expressed dissatisfaction about the one-year-long probe as CBI has yet to make a single arrest.

While transferring the probe from Special Investigation Team (SIT) to CBI, the Court had directed the state government to allow Verma, who was a part of the SIT, to assist CBI.

Mumbai-based Ishrat (19), Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were shot dead by Ahmedabad crime branch officers between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on June 15, 2004. But the SIT, formed by the HC, concluded that the encounter was fake.

Gujarat police had claimed Ishrat and others were Laskar-e-Taiba terror group operatives and had plans to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.