Sadiq Jamal encounter case:Gujarat High Court rejects father’s plea seeking Rs 50 lakh compensation

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today rejected a petition filed by father of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, who was killed in a controversial encounter in Naroda area of Ahmedabad in January 2003, seeking a compensation of Rs 50 lakh from the state government for the death of his son.

Sadiq, a resident of Bhavnagar who used to stay in Mumbai, was shot dead by a team of the Gujarat police near Galaxy Cinema in Naroda area of Ahmedabad in January 2003. The police had said that he was a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist who was on a mission to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi and BJP leader L K Advani. However, later the CBI investigation claimed that he was brought to Ahmedabad from the custody of the Mumbai police and killed in a staged encounter by police officer Tarun Barot and seven other junior rank policemen.

His father Jamal Mehtar had moved high court seeking its direction to the state government to provide him a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the death of his son, who according to him had died in police custody. He had also put forth the August 2009 Supreme Court order in the support of his demand by which the apex court had ordered the state government to pay compensation to the family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was allegedly killed in another controversial encounter. During the hearing in the court of Justice J B Pardiwala, the counsel of state government had opposed this demand saying that the trial of the case was still going on in a special CBI court which was yet to decide whether it was fake.

The court rejected the petition.

Earlier Sadiq’s brother Shabbir Mehtar had also filed an application before a designated court seeking details of the progress of the investigation in the case.

DeshGujarat