Ishrat Jahan case: Special CBI court rejects discharge pleas of Vanzara, Amin

A Special Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday rejected the discharge pleas of former police officers DG Vanzara and NK Amin in connection with the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case. Both, Vanzara and Amin are out on bail.

Special CBI Judge JK Pandey while rejecting the applications said that a clarity was needed on process of sanction. He fixed the next date of hearing on September 7 when charges would be framed against the two officers.

"The magnitude of crime in both cases is different," the Judge observed while rejecting the discharge pleas of Vanzara and Amin. Vanzara, the former Gujarat Deputy Inspector General had filed an application following the discharge of ex-Director General of Police PP Pandey from the case in February this year due to lack of evidence. Vanzara had sought discharge on the ground of parity with PP Pandey.

Reacting to the rejection, Amin who in his discharge application had stated that the encounter was genuine, told media, "We have not read the order in total. Why the judge took a discriminatory view is not clear to us. We will study the order and take further course of action."

He added, "What I could read through the order was only that the agency has been directed to seek the sanction and we are the officers, who could have never been prosecuted without the sanction.

There was discrimination between the IB officer and Gujarat police officer. So, that was the point that the honourable court would have focused on. We will follow the due course of law."

Last month, the court concluded hearing arguments of the two police officers, CBI and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser, who had challenged Vanzara's discharge applications.

Ishrat, a 19-year-old girl of Mumbai, and three others - Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged encounter with the police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

It was claimed by the Gujarat Police, that the four had terror links and had conspired to kill the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

A High Court-constituted-Special Investigative team (SIT) had concluded that it was a fake encounter, after which the court transferred the case to the CBI that filed a charge sheet against seven police officers in the case.

--ANI