The Gujarat police is likely to be soon charged with having staged yet another fake encounter. Top sources confided to this newspaper on Sunday that the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Gujarat high court has got evidence that will expose and debunk the Gujarat police theory that Ishrat Jahan was shot dead in a daredevil operation carried out a vigilant police.
The SIT, constituted following a petition by Ishrat’s mother, has got evidence to substantiate this, sources said.
“As of now the SIT has got enough evidence to prove that the Ishrat Jahan encounter case was manufactured,” a top Gujarat government source told this newspaper. Sources said the SIT has recorded the statements of at least three witnesses who dispute the version the police had given at the time of encounter. As per the police version, four “terrorists” — Ishrat Jahan, Javed Ghulam Sheikh, alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali, alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana, and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani were on a special mission to attack Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Based on an IB tipoff, their car was intercepted by an Ahmedabad police team on the outskirts of the city and in the ensuing encounter four “deadly terrorists”, including Ishrat, who were allegedly associated with the LeT were killed.
Sources said the police theory of a genuine encounter is not substantiated by the evidence on record.
It may be noted that last September, a judicial probe conducted by magistrate S.P. Tamang of the Ahmedabad metropolitan court had reported that the four persons were killed in a fake encounter.