<p>A special CBI court in Ahmedabad on Saturday discharged "encounter specialist" ex-Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot and another co-accused retired policeman from the Sadiq Jamal Mehtar encounter case. With this four of eight accused policemen have been discharged from the case while one was abated after his death.</p>.<p>Once known as "encounter specialist" Barot was one of the key accused in the case who, CBI alleged, took illegal custody of 19-year-old Bhavnagar resident Sadiq from Mumbai police days before he was killed in the encounter in Ahmedabad. CBI investigation established that Sadiq was illegally kept in the custody of Mumbai police too.</p>.<p>Barot, who is also an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, and co-accused Chhatrasinh Chudasama filed a discharge application in October last year through advocates R S Verma and Brijrajsinh Jhala respectively. Barot said in his plea that he was "innocent and has been falsely implicated in the case."</p>.<p>The application claimed,"...all the so-called statements and the documents, sought to be deliberately used as incriminating material against the present accused no. 8 (Barot), reveal nothing except the visit of the present accused no. 8 to Mumbai between 02.1.2003 to 04.1.2003. There is not a single direct statement/document in the charge-sheet which suggests that it was present accused no. 8 himself who obtained the alleged custody of Sadik from Mumbai. In view of this, the charge of the complainant CBI is based on just conjectures and surmises."</p>.<p>The CBI had opposed the pleas, stating in an affidavit that, "There is sufficient evidence available on record against accused persons and there is a strong prima facie case against the accused persons including the applicant accused of offences punishable u/s (under section) 120-B, r/w (read with) 302 of IPC and other offences. Even otherwise the trial court would examine only prima facie case for the purpose of framing of charges."</p>.<p>"...documents/records produced by the prosecution in the final report doesn't give two views, rather it gives only one view that the deceased Sadik Jamal was apprehended at Mumbai on 19/12/2002, present applicant accused left for Mumbai on 02.01.2003 and reached Mumbai on 03.01.2003, custody of Sadik was handed over by Mumbai police to Gujarat on 03.01.2003 for investigation at Ahmedabad & Bhavnagar and he was subsequently killed in a fake encounter in the intervening night of 12/13.01.2003," the affidavit stated.</p>.<p>Besides Barot, another policeman Chhtrasinh Chudasama was also discharged. Last year, the special court discharged two other accused policemen- R L Mavani and Ajaypal Yadav- from the trial after concluding that there was not enough evidence against them for trial.</p>.<p>CBI investigation, based on Gujarat High Court order, revealed that on January 2, 2003, Barot, who was then posted with Detection of Crime Branch, took custody of Sadiq, 19, a resident of Bhavnagar, from the Mumbai Police and brought him to Ahmedabad. On January 12, he was taken in a tempo traveller to the Sai Baba Complex near Galaxy cinema in the Naroda area where he was allegedly shot dead at around 1.15 am.</p>.<p>However, at the time of the incident, the DCB officials had claimed that Sadiq was killed in an encounter who was on a mission to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders for avenging the 2002 post-Godhra riots. </p>.<p>According to CBI, it was Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Mumbai which first generated an intelligence input claiming that Sadiq was associated with D-Gang and was allegedly planning to kill BJP leaders. The CBI chargesheet stated that before handing over Sadiq to Barot, he was arrested “in a stage-managed joint operation” conducted by the SIB, Mumbai and Central Intelligence Unit, Andheri, of Mumbai Crime Branch.</p>.<p>Sadiq worked as domestic help for Tariq Parveen, a close associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, at his home in Mumbai and then in Dubai between 1996 to October 2002. The CBI has said that Sadiq left Dubai following an altercation with Parveen’s associate, a Pakistan-based gangster Salim Chiplun and within months of his arrival back home, Sadiq was killed. </p>.<p>The CBI was expected to file a supplementary chargesheet in this case on the role played by senior officials of Gujarat, Mumbai police as well as officials of the intelligence bureau. However, even after eight years since the CBI filed its first chargesheet, no development has taken place.</p>
<p>A special CBI court in Ahmedabad on Saturday discharged "encounter specialist" ex-Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot and another co-accused retired policeman from the Sadiq Jamal Mehtar encounter case. With this four of eight accused policemen have been discharged from the case while one was abated after his death.</p>.<p>Once known as "encounter specialist" Barot was one of the key accused in the case who, CBI alleged, took illegal custody of 19-year-old Bhavnagar resident Sadiq from Mumbai police days before he was killed in the encounter in Ahmedabad. CBI investigation established that Sadiq was illegally kept in the custody of Mumbai police too.</p>.<p>Barot, who is also an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, and co-accused Chhatrasinh Chudasama filed a discharge application in October last year through advocates R S Verma and Brijrajsinh Jhala respectively. Barot said in his plea that he was "innocent and has been falsely implicated in the case."</p>.<p>The application claimed,"...all the so-called statements and the documents, sought to be deliberately used as incriminating material against the present accused no. 8 (Barot), reveal nothing except the visit of the present accused no. 8 to Mumbai between 02.1.2003 to 04.1.2003. There is not a single direct statement/document in the charge-sheet which suggests that it was present accused no. 8 himself who obtained the alleged custody of Sadik from Mumbai. In view of this, the charge of the complainant CBI is based on just conjectures and surmises."</p>.<p>The CBI had opposed the pleas, stating in an affidavit that, "There is sufficient evidence available on record against accused persons and there is a strong prima facie case against the accused persons including the applicant accused of offences punishable u/s (under section) 120-B, r/w (read with) 302 of IPC and other offences. Even otherwise the trial court would examine only prima facie case for the purpose of framing of charges."</p>.<p>"...documents/records produced by the prosecution in the final report doesn't give two views, rather it gives only one view that the deceased Sadik Jamal was apprehended at Mumbai on 19/12/2002, present applicant accused left for Mumbai on 02.01.2003 and reached Mumbai on 03.01.2003, custody of Sadik was handed over by Mumbai police to Gujarat on 03.01.2003 for investigation at Ahmedabad & Bhavnagar and he was subsequently killed in a fake encounter in the intervening night of 12/13.01.2003," the affidavit stated.</p>.<p>Besides Barot, another policeman Chhtrasinh Chudasama was also discharged. Last year, the special court discharged two other accused policemen- R L Mavani and Ajaypal Yadav- from the trial after concluding that there was not enough evidence against them for trial.</p>.<p>CBI investigation, based on Gujarat High Court order, revealed that on January 2, 2003, Barot, who was then posted with Detection of Crime Branch, took custody of Sadiq, 19, a resident of Bhavnagar, from the Mumbai Police and brought him to Ahmedabad. On January 12, he was taken in a tempo traveller to the Sai Baba Complex near Galaxy cinema in the Naroda area where he was allegedly shot dead at around 1.15 am.</p>.<p>However, at the time of the incident, the DCB officials had claimed that Sadiq was killed in an encounter who was on a mission to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders for avenging the 2002 post-Godhra riots. </p>.<p>According to CBI, it was Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Mumbai which first generated an intelligence input claiming that Sadiq was associated with D-Gang and was allegedly planning to kill BJP leaders. The CBI chargesheet stated that before handing over Sadiq to Barot, he was arrested “in a stage-managed joint operation” conducted by the SIB, Mumbai and Central Intelligence Unit, Andheri, of Mumbai Crime Branch.</p>.<p>Sadiq worked as domestic help for Tariq Parveen, a close associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, at his home in Mumbai and then in Dubai between 1996 to October 2002. The CBI has said that Sadiq left Dubai following an altercation with Parveen’s associate, a Pakistan-based gangster Salim Chiplun and within months of his arrival back home, Sadiq was killed. </p>.<p>The CBI was expected to file a supplementary chargesheet in this case on the role played by senior officials of Gujarat, Mumbai police as well as officials of the intelligence bureau. However, even after eight years since the CBI filed its first chargesheet, no development has taken place.</p>
