Ishrat Jahan case: Court reserves order on plea of accused policemen

Ahmedabad: A special CBI court on Monday reserved its order on an application filed by two policemen accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case, seeking copies of all the previous statements of witnesses as recorded by the earlier probe agencies. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) H S Khutwad of CBI court here today concluded the hearing on an application filed by former IPS officer G L Singhal and Tarun Barot and will pronounce the order on 7 August. [caption id=“attachment_1011921” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ishrat Jahan. Ibnlive[/caption] Six accused policemen in the case, out of the seven who were named in the charge sheet filed by CBI on 4 July, have been provided copies of various documents along with the charge sheet by CBI. Singhal and Barot have claimed that copies of the previous statements recorded under section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of various witnesses by the earlier investigating agencies like DCB Crime Branch, Ahmedabad and SIT (which had earlier investigated the case under the High Court order) have not been provided to them. However, opposing their demand, CBI today contended the prosecuting agency was not relying on the statements of the witnesses, which were recorded by the previous probe agencies. and hence those should not be given to the accused. Mumbai girl Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down on 15 June, 2004 by a team of Gujarat police on the city’s outskirts. Crime Branch had then claimed the four were terrorists who were on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. CBI, which probed the case, in its charge sheet termed the encounter as “fake” and a joint operation between Gujarat police and IB. The agency named seven senior Gujarat police officials as accused and charged them with murder and criminal conspiracy. PTI