Judicial inquiry says 2004 Ishrat encounter in Gujarat was fake

Dead: Ishrat Jahan was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004

Dead: Ishrat Jahan was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 AHMEDABAD: Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year old student of Khalsa College, Mumbai, and three others who were proclaimed Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives out to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, were actually killed a day before they were officially shown as having died in a police encounter. ( Watch Video )

An inquiry into the Ishrat Jahan encounter case of June 15, 2004 by a city magisterial court has revealed that the four killings were staged by the then Ahmedabad police commissioner KR Kaushik, crime branch chief PP Pandey, DIG DG Vanzara and his men. The report names 21 cops, including retired DGP Kaushik, as party to the fake encounter.

Just like the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter, where the couple was abducted and brought to Ahmedabad and Sohrabuddin’s wife Kauserbi killed because she was witness to the murder, the crime branch “kidnapped” Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh and Ishrat from Mumbai and kept them in illegal custody, the report says.

It claims that IPS officer DG Vanzara’s men killed Javed between 8.30pm and 9pm on June 14, then killed the ‘Pakistanis’ Jisan Johar and Amjadali Rana. Finally, Ishrat was killed that night, between 11pm and midnight, because ‘‘she was witness to the killings’’. Vanzara told the media the next morning that the four were killed after a dramatic police chase around 4.30am on June 15.

Based on food remains in the stomach and the state of the bodies , the inquiry concluded that the deaths occurred several hours before the official claim.

The report says after the three men were killed, Ishrat was forcibly positioned in the front seat of the car and shot from close range. A pistol was then placed in her hand. The police then put her college identity card around her neck and her purse was put in the boot of the car. It also declares that Johar and Rana were Indians.

It says the car was either towed or driven to Kotarpur water works at 4.30am on June 15. The policemen had also dragged Amjad’s body to the divider alongside the car and placed a 9mm gun in his hand.TTI