One more Gujarat cop gets bail in Sadiq Jamal encounter case

Ahmedabad

The special CBI court here today granted bail to a police officer in the Sadiq Jamal encounter killing case of 2003.

Judge M M Gandhi granted bail to the suspended police inspector G H Gohil on a surety bond of Rs two lakh.

The court observed that prima facie there was no evidence nor any overt role was attributed to the accused person by CBI.

Advocate Mitesh Amin, Gohil’s lawyer, pointed out that constables Chhatrapalsinh Chudasma, Ajaypalsinh Yadav and police inspector K M Waghela were granted bail earlier, and like them, Gohil too was only present during the alleged encounter but did not fire any shots.

Special prosecutor L D Tiwari of CBI said the bail should not be granted as Gohil was present during the crime.

Jamal, a resident of Bhavnagar, was killed in an encounter by Gujarat police near Galaxy Cinema in Naroda area here on January 13, 2003.

The genuineness of the encounter became an issue after a Mumbai-based former scribe, Ketan Tirodkar, filed an affidavit before a court in Mumbai that he was a witness to Jamal’s hand-over to Gujarat police by the `encounter specialist’ officer Daya Nayak of Mumbai police a few days before the alleged encounter.

The High Court ordered a CBI probe upon a petition of Sabir Jamal, Sadiq’s brother. CBI filed a charge sheet in December 2012.

The charge sheet also names DSP Tarun Barot, inspectors Jaysinh Parmar, Irshad Ali Saiyad and K M Vaghela, sub inspector Ramji Mavani and constables Ajaypalsinh Yadav and Chhatrasinh Chudasma.

© Copyright PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of any PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.