CBI wanted to arrest Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in Ishrat Jahan shootout case, says Gujarat's former DIG Vanzara

CBI wanted to arrest the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and the then state for Home Ministry Amit Shah in the Ishrat Jahan fake shootout case, D G Vanzara, Gujarat's former Deputy Inspector General of Police told a special court on Wednesday.

While arguing in the CBI court for Vanzara in a bail petition filed presided by JK Pandya, former DIG counsel V.D Gajjar asserted that though the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) intended to arrest Modi and Shah, "fortunately" it did not happen.

Currently, Narendra Modi is now the Prime Minister of India, Amit Shah is the President of Bharatiya Janata Party. Vanzara, who is out on bail in the case, had earlier submitted in the same court that Modi was secretly questioned by the case Investigating Officer when he was the Chief Minister, reports The New Indian Express.

In 2014, when the General Elections was held, the CBI had given a clean chit to Amit Shah on grounds of "insufficient evidence".

What is Ishrat Jahan case:

19-year-old Mumbai-based Ishrat Jahan and her friends Javed alias Pranesh, and Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Johar and Amzad Ali Rana were dubbed terrorists out on a mission to kidnap the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In June 2004, Mumbai-based 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan, her friends were gunned down by a team of DIG Vanzara in a gun battle on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. However, subsequent CBI investigation concluded that the shootout was fake.

Satish Verma, the Gujarat cadre IPS official who assisted the CBI in the investigations, had "tampered with the evidence" and maintained that he had "never fired from his gun,” a retired SP and a practising lawyer Amin claimed in the final submission in the court.

The court posted the matter for next hearing on June 15.