By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The father of a Kerala man allegedly killed in a fake shootout by Gujarat police three years ago and branded a terrorist asked Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Friday to get his son’s death probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Gopinathan Pillai, the father of Pranesh Kumar Pillai alias Javed who was killed allegedly in a fake encounter in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004, said: “My son was never a terrorist. He has been brutally murdered. I seek the intervention of the chief minister to unravel the truth of the shootout in the wake of the arrest of Vanzra (a senior Gujarat police official arrested last week for a staged killing).”
Pillai’s son assumed the name Javed after converting to Islam to marry a Muslim woman. He was shot dead along with three others. Police had then alleged the four were Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) activists on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The issue has surfaced now after the arrest of D.G. Vanzara and two other Indian Police Service officers for the November 2005 staged killing of Ahmedabad resident Sohrabuddin Sheikh and branding him a LeT terrorist.
Pillai claims Vanzara is involved in the death of his son too.
“I had earlier submitted a petition seeking a CBI inquiry into the killing to then chief minister A.K. Antony, but I never received even an acknowledgement.”
He said he did not have the resources to approach the Supreme Court to seek a CBI inquiry, “and if I have to do that I have to sell off my house”.
“I am in touch with my daughter-in-law who teaches in Pune. She has three kids to take care of. I hope Achuthanandan would come to our help by intervening in the matter,” said Pillai.