Invoking charges of criminal conspiracy and murder against eight policemen, including two retired officers, the CBI Saturday said the encounter of Sadiq Jamal was stage-managed and he was kept in illegal confinement of city crime branch.
The copies of the chargesheet, which was filed on December 22, were handed over to the accused Saturday by the court.
The CBI has chargesheeted deputy superintendent of police Tarun Barot, inspectors Jaysinh Parmar, Irshad Ali Saiyed and Kishoresinh Vaghela, sub-inspectors Ramji Mavani and Ghanshyamsinh Gohil and constables Ajaypalsingh Yadav and Chhatrasinh Chudasama.
While six policemen had been arrested in the case before the filing of the chargesheet, Saiyed had surrendered before the court after the chargesheet and a non-bailable warrant was issued against Vaghela in this case.
Apart from criminal conspiracy (Section 120B of IPC) and murder (Section 302), the eight policemen have also been charged for wrongful confinement (Section 342) and giving false information regarding an offence committed (Section 203).
The chargesheet states that the probe, undertaken by the investigating agency, has found that Sadiq Jamal was killed in a stage-managed encounter while he was kept in illegal confinement of the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad.
It further mentions that the alleged accused police officials, in order to give this encounter a colour of genuine encounter, planted and effected recovery of a revolver and ammunition from the deceased.
Sadiq was allegedly shot dead on November 13, 2003 near Galaxy Cinema in Naroda area here by police officers on the grounds that he was a Laskhar-e-Tayyaba operative, who was on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Praveen Togadia.
The Gujarat high court had transfered the case to the CBI.