Giving a new twist to the Ishrat Jahan case, a senior police officer has claimed before the Gujarat High Court that the 2004 killings could have taken place in a fake encounter.
By RK Misra
The pressure pot is on the boil again. Even before the Gujarat High Court-appointed Special Investigations Team (SIT) could get into its stride probing the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, prospects of widespread sabotage are staring in the face.
This is evident from an 80 page affidavit submitted by one of the SIT members, inspector general of police Satish Verma before the High Court division bench comprising justice Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari on January 28.
Verma a 1986 batch IPS officer known for his no nonsense style of strong arm policing has drawn attention to the role of his SIT colleague and fellow police officer Mohan Jha making witnesses retract their statements in the case. Gujarat cadre IPS officer Geetha Johri put in-charge of investigations of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case by the Supreme Court had earned the ire of the apex Court for a near similar reason and the investigations ultimately went to the CBI. History seems to be repeating itself again.
Interestingly if Jha’s name for the SIT was recommended by the Narendra Modi government, Verma fell foul of the powers that be when he arrested BJP MLA Shankar Chaudhary, a close confidante of Chief Minister Narendra Modi for involvement in the 2002 riots.
The man widely credited with wiping out the mafia in Porbandar during his stint there, Verma who was DIG, Border Range was “punished” for the arrest with a transfer to the Police Training School. Languishing in insignificant posts ever since, he was resurrected only after it became imminent that he was headed to becoming a member of the SIT.
From the Police Housing Corporation, Verma was pulled out and made the joint commissioner of traffic police in Ahmedabad city. Mohan Jha, on the other hand holds the key post of joint commissioner of police (crime branch), Ahmedabad.
Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged staged shoot-out on the outskirts of Ahmedabad by the police on June 16, 2004.
The police sought to make the four out to be Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives out on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Twenty one police officers including the then commissioner of the Ahmedabad police KR Kaushik, since retired, DIG Vanzara who is in judicial custody in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case are under the scanner in connection with this fake encounter as well.Subsequently a magisterial enquiry by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang under Section 176 CrPC had termed it a fake encounter. The SIT under the additional director general of police, Pramod Kumar, was formed by the High Court through an order on August 13, last year, for a fresh investigation into the encounter deaths of the four. The order was issued on a petition filed by Ishrat’s mother, Shamima Kausar, The SIT was asked to submit its final report by November 30, but said it could not complete its task within the given period because of new and additional factors.
The SIT is reported to have admitted that it had failed to secure details of telephone and mobile records of key police officers as well as victims between June 1 and 20, 2004 because the case was old and no records were available.
Though the statement of 63 people had been recorded no one could throw much light on the old case, the SIT noted. Advertisements in newspapers inviting people to share information pertaining to the encounter had not yielded a single response, the report further noted. The matter subsequently went up to the Supreme Court and the old SIT was subsequently scrapped and replaced by the present one headed by Delhi police joint commissioner Karnal Singh with Verma and Jha as its other members.
As in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, the Modi government has consistently sought to scuttle the probe in this case.
Verma’s affidavit also sheds light on the fact that all the 26 policemen who were linked to
the Ishrat Jahan encounter and were subsequently scattered across different postings, were by an order of the police commissioner dated January 6, suddenly transferred and bunched together under the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Ahmedabad crime branch.
They were put under the charge of assistant commissioner of police, Tarun Barot, himself a prime suspect in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. The matter came to light when Moti Desai, a head constable who was also a witness in the case was transferred to the SOG.
Moti who had earlier during his questioning shed interestingly light on the killing, subsequently retracted and filed a plea in the High Court stating that he had been coerced into giving the statement.
Interestingly the department to which Desai and the other constables was transferred is now headed by Mohan Jha. However after Verma drew the attention of the Ahmedabad police commissioner to this anamoly, the transfers were subsequently undone.
Verma has clearly stated that there is reasonable indication that fellow member Mohan Jha seems to be connected with the exercise of obtaining the retraction and complaint of Desai.
The evidence with the SIT speaks of illustrative evidence which brings out well founded allegation of the fake encounter. “There are scientific and circumstantial evidence against the version provided in the
first information report of the staged shootout case and there was some evidence, though not conclusive and final, but good enough to suspect beyond reasonable doubt that it could be a fake encounter,” the affidavit states.
He has also said that the statements of head constable, Moti Desai, read together with Raju Jirawala, owner of Arham farm house and his watchman Raman, show that one of the two alleged Pakistani nationals killed in this case were kept in captivity at the Arham farm for about five days prior to
the encounter.
He further stated that the weekly diaries of police inspector JG Parmar and other officers also appeared to be in conformity with the disclosures made by Desai.
Verma stated that the post-mortem examination shows that the paths of many bullets inside the bodies of the deceased persons are not consistent with the FIR version.
He claimed that one bullet of 9 mm calibre recovered from the body of the deceased Amjad Ali Rana does not match with any police weapon allegedly used during the incident.
He further claimed that twisted parts of bullets recovered from Ishrat Jahan’s body also do not match with any of the police weapon allegedly used. He further claimed that the FIR itself suffered from lacunae.