In a new twist in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, a constable who was recently shifted out of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch after serving there for over 20 years is now under the CBI scanner for allegedly having kept the Mumbai girl at his house in Gaekwad Haveli days before she was killed on June 15, 2004. Reports citing CBI sources said summons are about to be issued to the senior police constable who was shunted out of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch after the central probe agency registered an FIR in the encounter case in December last year. They said recent leads in the case indicated that the constable had rented out the first floor of his house to another policeman from the crime branch who is a suspect in the Ishrat encounter case.
According to leads with the CBI, soon after Ishrat was brought to Ahmedabad, the police constable had assured encounter specialist D.G. Vanzara (the then DCP of Ahmedabad Crime Branch who is now in jail) that Ishrat would be kept at his house until they got a place to shelter her. CBI sleuths believe the constable could be involved in the abduction of Ishrat and her friend Javed from Vasad in Anand district two days before their encounter on June 15, 2004.
Another initial probe by the CBI into the fake encounter has revealed that the Mumbai based teenager and her three friends did not fire even a single bullet at the Gujarat cops during the incident. The CBI, which recently registered a case against 20 policemen of Gujarat in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, is scrutinising the forensic reports related to the incident. The officials are also scrutinising the forensic reports of the weapon used by the cops in the alleged killing.