By Syed Zubair Ahmad,
Blood of an innocent always haunts the killer, say people. This has become evident once again in the case of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter. Several police officers have been arrested and sent to jail for the killing of four persons including 19-year-old Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan. However, full nine years after the fake Ahmedabad encounter, it seems the innocent blood has ultimately caught the chief of the conspirators and killers. The leaked status report of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the Ishrat encounter clearly says Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had full prior information of the encounter, he was in touch with the conspirators and khaki killers both before and after the encounter – in fact he himself had given consent to the fake encounter.
The status report on Ishrat probe which the CBI is going to submit with the court on coming 4th July 2013 has several damning proofs of involvement of Modi and his most trusted lieutenant Amit Shah in the killing of the four persons.
The report is based on a sworn affidavit of an IPS officer – who is also an accused in the Ishrat encounter. The officer has admitted that he heard then DIG D G Vanzara telling Rajinder Kumar, then a joint director of Intelligence Bureau posted in Ahmedabad that both ‘safed dadhi’ (white beard) and ‘kaali dadhi’ (black beard) had approved the plan to kill Ishrat and her three friends. The CBI has inferred that grey beard referred to Modi and black beard to Amit Shah.
The CBI status report leaked in some sections of the media including Tehelka says Vanzara spoke to Shah twice just hours before the encounter and also after the encounter on the morning of June 15, 2004. It also claims that calls were made to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the state home minister Amit Shah’s residences hours before the encounter.
Besides, the accused IPS officer has also reportedly submitted a tape with the CBI. The tape is believed to have call recordings of Modi’s ministers – education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, law minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja and former junior home minister Praful Patel – a senior bureaucrat in the CMO GC Murmu and advocate general in Gujarat high court Kamal Trivedi. They allegedly were talking to oppose the report of Special Investigation Team constituted by high court to probe the Ishrat encounter if the report went against the official stand of the government over the encounter.
Special Director of IB Rajinder Kumar had been very close friend of Modi. Kumar was with officers like DG Venzara a few days before the encounter. Vanzara was also the closest senior police officer to Modi. It should be kept in mind that it was Kumar who persuaded RB Sri Kumar, the then DGP Gujarat in-charge of intelligence, to accept the conspiracy theory that fire of Sabarmati Express was the handiwork of ISI Pakistan.
During the real time of the encounter on 15 June 2004, Modi called and talked 40 times with Kumar. Sudhir Brahmbhatt, the main public prosecutor, was in constant touch with the home department of the state of Gujarat on phone during 14-15th of June 2004. Modi had and still has the portfolio of home ministry of Gujarat.
It took nine years for different investigative agencies to get around the chief conspirators of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. Modi is getting furious as the noose is tightening around his neck. He has challenged the CBI saying, “I warn CBI officers who are misleading the people and putting wrong cases on officers and leader in Gujarat.”
The latest development in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case shows that like other co-conspirators Modi is also reaching his logical end. As dozen odd police officers have lost their face and career for being involved in the Ishrat encounter, it seems, the blood of an innocent young girl will finish the political career of Modi also – sooner or later.
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smzubairahmad@gmail.com