New Delhi: A Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday discharged three police officials in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case after the Gujarat government refused to given permission to prosecute them.
With this, all accused who were chargesheeted in the case have been let off.
The CBI special court dropped the proceedings after the Gujarat government refused the sanction to prosecute the three accused – IPS officer GL Singhal, retired DySP Tarun Barot and an assistant sub-inspector Anaju Chaudhary.
The three officials faced charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, abduction and illegal detention of the 19-year-old girl from Mumbra.
Jahan and her companions Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, were shot dead on 15 June, 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in an allegedly fake police encounter.
It can be noted that current Minister of Home Affairs was sent to jail for a few months in the same Ishrat Jahan case. He was asked to live outside Gujarat after being granted bail.
CBI counsel RC Kodekar on Wednesday while arguing said that the sanction refused by the Gujarat government is “without application of mind” and so the application of the accused should be dismissed.
The CBI Court, however, believed the Gujarat Police which said that ”they had received information from Intelligence Bureau (IB) that four terrorist had entered Gujarat and in retaliation police fired resultantly killing them all therefore the Act was carried out by the police officers while carrying out their duties.”
In 2019, Jahan’s mother Shamima Kausar had written to the CBI court saying that she does not hope that she will get justice in the case. Hence, her counsels will no longer appear in the case.