By TwoCircles.net Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: As many as 19 police officials, including many serving as well as retired IPS officials, have been issued summons by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. SIT sources say, that all of them connected with the case will be interrogated.
Among those who have been issued summons include high profile cop Tarun Barot, currently working with Special Operations Group (SOG) and GL Singhal, presently working as Superintendent in state’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). Former Ahmedabad police commissioner K R Kaushik and former Ahmedabad crime branch chief P P Pandey also, have reportedly been summoned for the interrogation.
Both Barot and Singhal were working with Ahmedabad crime branch when the encounter took place. While Singhal is alleged to have conspired with others to eliminate Ishrat and three others, Barot had fired several rounds on Ishrat. Sources say that all of them will be quizzed in the next fortnight.
A total of four persons, including Ishrat, were shot dead near Kotarpur waterworks on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city in wee hours of June 25, 2004. Besides Ishrat, others killed, were Pragnesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana alias Rajkumar, Akbar Ali Rana and Zeeshan Jauhar. Rana and Jauhar are reported to be Pakistanis.
The police team led by D G Vanzara, who is currently in jail in connection with fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, had allegedly conspired to eliminate the four but told the media after the encounter, that the four were on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.
But an earlier probe conducted into the incident by magistrate S P Tamang had blasted the police theory and found that the four were killed by the Gujarat cops to “seek promotions and appreciation.” Tamang report was based on post-mortem report, forensic science laboratory report and FIR filed by the police in the case.
The report had rubbished the claim of the police that the four were killed from a distance of 70 feet. It said that they were killed from a very close range. While FIR had claimed that Javed had fired 58 rounds from his AK-57 assault rifle, Tamang report had stated that the weapons allegedly recovered from the “terrorists” were jammed and not worth use as per the FSL report.
However, the Tamang report was stayed by Gujarat high court which set up an SIT to re-investigate the matter on the orders of the Supreme Court.