Ishrat encounter: Javed Sheikh's wife's statement included in CBI report

New Delhi: Amjad Ali Rana had stayed at Javed Sheikh’s residence in Mumbai impersonating as his friend “Bunty”, days before he was intercepted by Gujarat Police in Ahmedabad and allegedly shot dead in an encounter in which Ishrat Jahan was also killed along with them. CBI has included the statement of Sheikh’s wife Sajida as witness number 42 in its charge sheet wherein she identified the photograph of Rana as her husband Sheikh’s friend Bunty who had stayed with them at their house in Mumbai. The agency in its charge sheet had mentioned that Rana was intercepted by a team of subsidiary Intelligence Bureau and Gujarat Police crime branch officials on May 25 and was kept in illegal confinement. “I still cannot believe Javed was a terrorist,” Sajida said in a statement to CBI. Sajida is understood to have told the investigators that Sheikh had visited Oman in April and returned from there with Rs 2.5 lakh cash, a satellite phone and also some mobile phones. [caption id=“attachment_954323” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ishrat’s body being brought out by her mother. AFP.[/caption] When asked about the money, Sheikh told her that the money belonged to some customer and had to be returned. The witness told that Sheikh paid back Rs 1 lakh and of the remaining Rs 1.5 lakh, he bought a second hand Blue Indica in which he was allegedly killed by a team of Gujarat Police Crime Branch team. “In the month of May 2004 at the time of purchase of Indica Car, Javed had brought one of his friend at our house and introduced him as his friend Bunty. Bunty stayed in our house along with us,” Sajida had told in her statement. She said after the encounter death of her husband she came to know that the person named Amjad Ali who also died in the encounter was the same person named Bunty who had stayed with them at their Mumbai house. “Now on being shown the photograph of Amjad Ali, I identify him as Bunty,” she had said in her statement. They said nearly a month later, on May 26, 2005, Crime Branch officials Amin, Barot and Chauhan along with SIB officials Sinha and Wankhede allegedly “abducted” Rana from Gota Crossing in outskirts of Ahmedabad and confined him in illegal custody at Arham Farm House there. The safe house was allegedly arranged by DCP Crime Branch J G Parmar, sources said. The agency has filed its first charge sheet in connection with the fake encounter and is likely to file another in the next six weeks which is likely to carry the conspiracy behind the killing of Ishrat, Sheikh, Zishan Johar and Rana on June 15, 2004. CBI’s charge sheet names seven police officers of Gujarat Police as accused of murder, kidnapping and other related crimes under the Indian Penal Code. On the day of encounter, a Gujarat Police official allegedly drove Sheikh, Ishrat and Johar in the car, owned by Sheikh, from the farmhouse where they were kept in illegal custody to an empty stretch of road between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar where they were killed. Rana was brought in a different car to the location and all four were killed by Gujarat crime branch officials in a staged encounter, CBI claimed in its charge sheet. PTI