By Pervez Bari TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has hailed the Gujarat High Court-appointed SIT’s (Special Investigation Team), findings; which concluded that the controversial police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others was “fake” as they were killed in cold blood, prior to the day of the so-called encounter.
The SDPI national president Mr. E Aboobacker in a statement said that SIT findings have reiterated the general perception that the victims were not terrorists. It has reinforced the findings of the Tamang Enquiry Report which had drawn similar conclusions in 2009. State Chief Minister Narendra Modi should step down and all those guilty in the case should be booked forthwith, he added.
Mr. Aboobacker said that the BJP government in Gujarat is notorious worldwide for fake encounters as it is not the first time such incidents are coming to light. About half a dozen IPS officers in the BJP-ruled state are already behind the bars in fake encounter cases. The SIT report has also brought into question the role of certain senior officers of central agencies who were complicit in the faking of evidence; this should be investigated as well. He asked the Central Government to take appropriate actions immediatly on this count.
He said that the SIT report has upheld the allegation of civil rights activists that the officers in Gujarat police had executed several people through the last decade in collusion with the highest political authority in the state. The police officers gained medals and promotions and Modi built his image as the Hindutva hero by highlighting the alleged assassination attempts on him.
Mr. Aboobacker demanded immediate arrest of the accused and the implementation of Gujarat High Court’s order in letter and spirit to file a fresh FIR and charges of murder against the police officers forthwith.
“The situation demands that Narendra Modi must step down immediately so that investigations could be just and fair and only this could bring justice to the victims. As long as he remains at the helm of affairs the investigations cannot be impartial. The complicity of Modi in the cover-up of the fake-encounter cannot be ruled out” he added.
He also demanded that on similar grounds the Batla House ‘encounter’ too requires unbiased probes as the case too is lacking NHRC’s clean chit, and the Congress government has refused for a judicial inquiry. The case should be investigated as well because; it continues to be shrouded in mystery in the lights of the post mortem report the two youths killed confirmed that the two had been shot from close range in the back; not a single shot was fired in the frontal region, an improbability in the case of cross fire encounters.
This brings the Delhi Government’s intentions under scanner and it seems as if like, the government wants to hide the truth. Traditional enquiry reports and routine actions are not sufficient to check the increasing criminal attitude among the investigating officers and police of the country. There should be attempts to find out the root cause and inspiration for unlawful acts, he added.