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Probe finds Modi's favourite
officers killed woman, three others in fake encounter
WSN Network
 AHMEDABAD: In
yet another major setback to the Narendra Modi government in
Gujarat, Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang has ruled
that the incident in which a woman Ishrat Jahan and three others
were killed in June, 2004, was yet another case of “fake encounter.”
In his 243-page
hand written report on the encounter, Tamang named the then
“encounter specialist” of the Gujarat police, D.G. Vanzara, and
others as accused in the “cold blooded murder” of the teenaged girl
and three others.
Vanzara and
several other policemen are already in jail in connection with the
Sohrabuddin case which the State government confessed before the
Supreme Court was a case of “fake encounter.”
A shameless and
remorseless Modi government, instead of being shocked over the
contents of the report and acting against the killers, rushed to
their defence and said it will challenge the findings.
A special
three-member team of top police officers of the State appointed by
the Gujarat High Court for a fresh investigation into the Ishrat
Jahan encounter is seized of the matter.
Claiming that
Ishrat and three others were killed in fake encounter by the police
officers for their personal interests, get promotions and gain
appreciations from the Chief Minister, Tamang appended a list of top
police officers running into about two pages who he held responsible
for the fake encounter. Besides Vanzara and his then deputy in the
Crime Branch police, N. K. Amin, who along with Vanzara was also
arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, the list includes
the then Ahmedabad police commissioner, K. R. Kaushik, the then
chief of the Crime Branch, P. P. Pandey, another alleged encounter
specialist Tarun Barot and a host of other senior police officers.
Tamang’s report
said the Crime Branch police “kidnapped” Ishrat and three others
from Mumbai on June 12 and brought them to Ahmedabad. The four were
killed on the night of June 14 in police custody, but the police
claimed that an “encounter” took place on the morning of June 15
near Kotarpur water works on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The rigor
mortis that had set in clearly indicated that Ishrat died between 11
p.m. and 12 midnight the previous night and the police apparently
pumped bullets into her body to substantiate the encounter theory.
It said the
explosives, rifles, and other weapons allegedly found in their car
were all “planted” by the police after the encounter.
The police had
then claimed that Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai, and
three others — Javed Sheikh, a convert son of Gopinath Pillai of
Kerala and two Pakistani citizens Amzad Ali Rana and Jishan Jauhar —
were connected with Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and
were coming to Gujarat to assassinate Mr. Modi to avenge the 2002
communal riots.
Congress slams
Modi govt, BJP defends
Gujarat
government's reaction to the damning report drew the ire of Congress
which said "it is become increasingly evident that there is a
man-eating government in Gujarat."
Congress
spokesman Manish Tiwari said in New Delhi that the Supreme Court or
the Gujarat High Court should take suo motu cognisance of all
encounters from 2001-09.
As for the BJP,
senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said when asked whether Modi should
be held accountable for the Ishrat encounter, said, "Why should Modi
take a call?....Do you think anything that happens in any state, the
chief minister is responsible? If anything happens in the national
capital, is the Prime Minister responsible?"
9
September 2009
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