Ishrat Jahan encounter is fake, says judicial probe

In a setback to Gujarat government, a judicial probe says the 2004 killing of young college girl Ishrat Jahan and three others suspected to be on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi was a case of fake encounter by the police.

Metropolitan Magistrate SP Tamang's probe report submitted in the metropolitan court here on Monday said the four persons who were also suspected to be having links with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in cold blood by the police. Magistrate Tamang in his report has claimed that the four were not linked to LeT.

Mumbai-based Ishrat (19) was killed in an encounter along with three other persons - Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani - by Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) officials near Ahmedabad on June 15 2004.

The then head of DCB DG Vanzara who is a prime accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case is behind bars at present had claimed that all the four had links to LeT and they were on a mission to kill Modi.

Last month the Gujarat High Court had formed a three-member committee headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) to further investigate the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. This was done following a petition by Ishrat's mother Shamina, who alleged her daughter was killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat police.

After the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, this was the second case where an encounter involving Gujarat police during the Narendra Modi rule is being probed again.