The controversial killing of Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh and three others in 2004 allegedly by Gujarat Crime Branch Police took a fresh turn with the Home Ministry on April 7 offering a CBI inquiry into it. A report from Ahmedabad said: Justice K.S. Jhaveri of the Gujarat High Court on April 5 adjourned the hearing in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case after the Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings in the High Court in the case. The High Court adjourned the hearing till December 15. Earlier, the Special Investigation Team set up on the instructions of the High Court to probe the encounter case, submitted its progress report to the court in sealed cover. The team, which comprises three IPS officers, also sought a three-month extension for completion of the investigation.
Ishrat Jahan and three others were shot dead on June 15, 2004 by the Gujarat police which claims to have killed them in an ‘encounter’ to foil an “assassination bid” on Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Police could not produce conclusive evidence in support of “assassination bid” theory. It is alleged that the whole drama was enacted to politically help Modi and parivar by creating a sympathy wave in his favour and tarnish the image of a particular community as ‘terrorists’.
Standing by the “intelligence inputs” given by Central agencies to Gujarat police in 2004 about threat to Chief Minister Narendra Modi from LeT terrorists and their movements, the ministry said, “All such inputs do not constitute proof.” In an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the ministry suggested that a CBI inquiry could help in arriving at the truth in the matter.
Nineteen-year old, Ishrat Jahan was a second year Bachelor of Science student of Mumbai’s Guru Nanak Khalsa College. The second of seven siblings, Ishrat had lost her father two years before her killing. Her lower middle class family, hailing from Bihar, lived in the Rashid compound in the Muslim-dominated area of Mumbra in Thane district, Maharashtra. She did private tuitions and embroidery work to support her family. Her teachers and college-mates remembered her as a sober and moderate Muslim girl. Her contacts with terror groups could never be proved.
The NHRC promptly took suo motu notice of the incident and within three days directed the Modi Government to comply with the NHRC 2003 Guidelines on Encounter Deaths. The guidelines require a Magisterial probe as well as a police investigation into all encounters. Subsequently Magisterial probe was ordered along with police investigation.
Isharat’s mother Shamima Kausar was not satisfied with the police investigation and moved the Gujarat High Court to transfer the case from Gujarat Police to CBI. Responding to the notice of the court, the State Government opposed her plea and filed an affidavit in September 2004 informing HC that “the fact and genuineness of the police action on June 15 in which Ishrat and three others were killed, is being enquired into by the Addl. DGP CID (Int) Gujarat State and also separate Magisterial inquiry is being conducted in this regard by the SDM, Ahmedabad.”
It was in response to this prayer that after four years on August 13, 2009, the High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team of three senior officers of State Police and entrusted police investigation in ‘FIR No. C.R. No I-8 of 2004 registered with DCB Police Station, Ahmedabad City’ to the newly constituted SIT.
On September 7, 2009, the Metropolitan Magistrate SP Tamang submitted his probe report in designated court in Ahmedabad. The 243-page damning report established: “Ishrat was innocent and was killed only because she was a Muslim and fitted the Gujarat Police’s idea of a terrorist.” The report says the police carried out this fake encounter to get rewards and promotions. To curry favour with the Chief Minister, they also floated a story that she and her associates had come to eliminate him. Since the report absolved the young Ishrat from the stigma of being a terrorist, her relatives felt relieved. But this proved to be a temporary relief.
Irked by the report, the Modi government moved Gujarat High Court, seeking a stay on the report. Acting promptly on the Government petition, Justice Kalpesh Javheri not only stayed the operation of the Metropolitan Magistrate S.K. Tamang’s report but also said the observations made in the report were beyond the jurisdiction of the Judicial Magistrate. Justice Javheri also directed a probe into his conduct in submitting his report even as an SIT investigation ordered by the High Court was under way. He ordered the appropriate authority of the High Court to look into the actions of Magistrate Tamang and take necessary action.
However in his order passed on September 9 last, Justice Javheri gave liberty to Ishrat’s mother to produce the report before the three-member committee constituted by the High Court last month to investigate the encounter. It further said the report can be considered as evidence by the committee.
Ishrat’s mother challenged the stay on the report and moved the Apex Court with a plea to restore the honour of her daughter. The Supreme Court stayed the proceedings in the Gujarat HC and issued notices to Government of India, the State Government and the CBI.
The SLP said: “The High Court order was based on an erroneous interpretation of Section 176 (1A) of the Cr. PC as every unnatural death entails inquest under Section 174 to ascertain the apparent cause of death. An investigation by the police and an enquiry by a judicial magistrate under Section 176 (1A) were distinct but simultaneous proceedings, and indeed the Cr. PC mandates these parallel proceedings.”
Responding to the SC notice, the Union Home Ministry suggested a CBI probe to clear the air. It said, “If on a proper consideration of the facts it is found that an independent inquiry and investigation has to be carried by the CBI or otherwise, the Union of India would have no objection to such a course and would abide by such orders which the court may deem fit to pass.”
Among the 20 cops accused of her murder, prominent are Gujarat Additional DGP (Intelligence) P.C. Pandey; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Gujarat ATS) G.L. Singhal; Retired Police Commissioner K.R. Kaushik; Police Inspector with Ahmedabad Crime Branch Tarun Barot; and the then Additional Police Commissioner (Crime Branch) D.G. Vanzara and then Assistant Commissioner of Police N.K. Amin, both already in jail in connection the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
[The writer is Gen. Secretary Forum for Civil Rights. May be contacted at [email protected]]