Ishrat Jahan Encounter: Court rejects discharge plea of four cops, directs CBI to seek sanction from Gujarat govt

A special CBI court on Friday rejected the discharge application of four accused policemen in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case with a direction to CBI to seek sanction from the state government to prosecute these officers. With this, the fate of accused cops will be decided on the Gujarat government's decision.

Earlier, in a similar situation, the government had refused to grant permission to prosecute former IPS officer D G Vanzara and retired Superintendent of Police N K Amin, both were key accused in the case, based on which they were eventually discharged from the trial.

The special judge V R Raval disposed of the discharge applications moved by accused IPS officer G L Singhal, retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Tarun Barot, ex DySP J G Parmar, and assistant sub-inspector Anaju Chaudhary. Parmar, passed away last month, was abated.

The accused policemen had moved separate applications but had identical grounds that they should be discharged on parity with Vanzara, Amin, and ex-Director General of Police Pandey who have 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 the code of criminal procedure mandated for prosecuting government servants.

The state government had denied permission on the ground of "larger public interest" and claimed that Ishrat Jahan was an "operative of Pakistan-based terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba." 19 years old Ishrat, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two alleged Pakistani nationals had been killed in a joint operation by Gujarat policemen and four officers of the Intelligence Bureau.

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