In a shocking development that will tighten the noose over the Gujarat police, further exposing its obsession with encounters, it has emerged that Ishrat Jahan was kept in the same farmhouse where Sohrabuddin’s wife Kauser Bi was kept, assaulted and killed. The police officer who planned and executed both encounters was alleged “supercop” D.G. Vanzara, now in prison.
“This is a shocking revelation”, a top CBI official said, adding that Rajesh Jirawala, owner of Arham farmhouse, on Ahmedabad’s outskirts, had told the CBI on Tuesday that his farmhouse had been sought by the Gujarat police in 2004 to conduct a sensitive investigation. “Ishrat Jahan was also kept here before Kauser Bi”, he reportedly said. Kauser Bi was kept there in 2005.
Mr Jariwala and his family have solid BJP connections. His brother Surendra is the BJP councillor from Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati area.
The policemen involved in the encounter told the authorities, even before the CBI’s involvement, that Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi had initially been kept at Disha farmhouse, before Kauser Bi was shifted to Arham. It is still not clear if she was sexually exploited or “just misbehaved” with before being killed.