Ishrat Jahan case: Petition wants Amit Shah, ex-DGP as accused

Ahmedabad: A special CBI court here today issued notices to former Gujarat minister of the state for home, Amit Shah, and former Director General of Police KR Kaushik on a petition seeking to make them accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. Gopinath Pillay, the father of Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, one of those killed alongwith Ishrat, has moved the court with the petition. The special CBI court judge Geeta Gopi issued the notice to Shah and Kaushik as well as the CBI while posting the plea for further hearing on 26 March. Pillay wants the court to put the two on trial for criminal conspiracy, illegal confinement and murder. The two charge-sheets filed by the CBI so far do not name Shah, a prominent aide of Narendra Modi, and Kaushik (who was the commissioner of police at Ahmedabad at the relevant time) as the accused. Mumbra-based Ishrat Jahan was allegedly murdered with her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two others (believed to be Pakistani nationals) on 15 June, 2004 by Gujarat police in a fake encounter outside the city. [caption id=“attachment_1435047” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Will Amit Shah be made an accused in the case? PTI[/caption]Pillay’ application states that there was “a clear prima facie case” against Amit Shah on the basis of the material collected by CBI. “IPS officer Girish Singhal and other police officers Bharat Patel and D H Goswami in their statements have alleged the role of Amit Shah in the encounter case. “G L Singhal clearly stated that Chief Minister (Modi) and Amit Shah gave sanction for the encounter,” the application says. It also relies on the letter written by the jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara, in which he had said that the encounter was a part of the conscious policy of the state of “zero tolerance” towards terrorism. “The officers and men of crime branch, during the period of years between 2002 to 2007 simply acted and performed their duties in compliance of the conscious policy of this government,” the application quotes from Vanzara’s letter. It also quotes police officer D H Goswami who had said that “I remember Rajinder Kumar (former IB director) telling Vanzara to speak to the CM and Vanzara saying he would talk to the `Safed dadhi’ and `Kali Dadhi’….well known monikers in the city crime branch for the CM Narendra Modi and the minister of state (home) Amit Shah”. “Despite my strong objection Vanzara insisted…on killing the girl and branding her as a woman terrorist,” the application quotes from Singhal’s statement. The application has also relied on the call data records of Rajinder Kumar, Vanzara and Amit Shah. “Eighteen calls were made between Amit Shah and Vanzara in June. Some of the calls directly corroborate the evidence,” it says. “There is evidence against Shah for being in constant touch with Rajinder Kumar and Vanzara during the planning and executing of the encounter,” the petitioner’s lawyer Shamshad Pathan argued in the court. About Kaushik, the lawyer said that he had received the Intelligence Bureau’s input, which led to the killings. “Fifteen days prior to the encounter, Kaushik had received an intelligence input that terrorists with the intention to kill the CM have intruded into the state,” advocate Pathan said. “While as per the CBI’s evidence on record, two deceased, Amjad Ali and Zeeshan Johar, were in the prior custody of IB and crime branch officers,” he argued. “If the persons were in custody, why were the inputs generated and (as) Kaushik was much aware of that, then on whose orders Kaushik passed on the inputs,” he argued further. On February 5 this year, ten years after the encounter, CBI filed a supplementary charge-sheet and named former IB director Rajinder Kumar as the main conspirator. Three other IB officers, namely, Tushar Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Vankhede, were also named as the accused. The first charge-sheet had termed the encounter as fake and a joint operation by IB and Gujarat Police. It named IPS officers D G Vanzara, P P Pandey, Girish Singhal, besides Barot, N K Amin, J G Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary as the accused. PTI