Ahmedabad:

The CBI has opposed the discharge petitions of former DIG D G Vanzara and former SP Narendra K Amin in Ishrat Jahan Encounter case.

Earlier despite the opposition from the CBI, the special court here hearing the case had accepted similar petition of former in-charge DGP P P Pandey on February 21 this year.

The court of special CBI Judge J K Pandya has fixed the next date of hearing on the discharge petitions of Vanzara and Amin on May 5.

Vanzara had on March 12 filed his discharge petition seeking discharge on the ground of parity with Pandey.who was discharged on various grounds, including lack of sanction for prosecuting government servant, no strong prima facie case against him and unreliable witnesses. Vanzara has said that “more or less he is also facing the same charges as Pandey” and therefore, he should also be “exonerated”. Amin also followed suit later. The court had ordered CBI to file a reply on the same. The probe agency in its reply today said that the duo should not be discharged as it has strong evidences against them.

Notably the former DIG has in its discharge application said that the CBI in its chargesheet named only seven policemen out of the total 19 accused who were named in the FIR. Citing a court judgment, Vanzara stated: “The investigating officer is not vested with the power of pardon even during the course of investigation.”

Vanzara has claimed that the CBI’s chargesheet was “politically motivated. He has alleged in the petition that it was filed with a view to topple the then democratically-elected (Narendra Modi government of Gujarat) government, (and the) entire plot appears to have been deployed by the then central government (led by the UPA)…”

“The fact also remains that, the then Chief Minister and the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also called by the IO (investigating officer) and was interrogated, however such material is not placed on record of this case…the fact remains that, it was the intention on part of the then investigating team, which had included one Satish Verma, IPS, was any how on mission so as to reach the then Chief Minister of the state and to rope him as the accused in this case…and for that purpose the story of this whole chargesheet is created and concocted,” Vanzara’s application claimed.

Vanzara has also claimed in his application that none of the witnesses in the case are reliable. “The statements of witnesses, which have been recorded under section 164 (5) of the CrPC, are highly suspicious,” he has claimed. He has argued that charges cannot be framed based on the statements of the accused who were “converted into witnesses by the investigating agency

The CBI had filed its chargesheet in the case in 2013 against seven policemen, including P P Pandey, Vanzara, Deputy Inspector General G L Singhal, DSP (retired) N K Amin, Deputy Superintendent of Police (retired) Tarun Barot and others for allegedly “kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan, a resident of Mumbai, her friend Pranyesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh and two alleged Pakistani nationals Amzad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar in June, 2004. All of the accused were arrested and were later released on bail.

Gujarat police had claimed that Ishrat and her friends were operative of terror outfit LeT who had came to Ahmedabad with an intention to assassinate the then CM of Gujarat (Modi).

Notably, Vanzara was discharged in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases last year. Vanzara was even not allowed to enter Gujarat for quite some time.

DeshGujarat