Thursday 11 February 2016

11 FEB 2016 ISHRAT JAHAN_TERRORIST

Ishrat Jahan case

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case)

Ishrat Jahan encounter, 15 June 2004.
The Ishrat Jahan encounter case is an ongoing criminal case in the Gujarat state of India, in which the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused officers of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch to have carried out an encounter killing while shooting dead four alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives on 15 June 2004. The four people who were killed by the police were Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra, Maharashtra, and three men – namely Pranesh Pillai (alias Javed Gulam Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar.[1]
On 10 February 2016, David Headley, in his video interrogation from USA, has linked Ishrat Jahan to LeT.[2]
The police team was led by DIG D.G. Vanjara, who spent eight years in jail for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter.[3] The police claimed that Ishrat and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Later, an investigation was launched based on allegations that Ishrat was killed in a encounter. Five years later, in 2009, an Ahmedabad Metropolitan court ruled that the encounter was staged.[4] The decision was challenged by the Gujarat State government, and taken to the High Court. On 3 July 2013, the CBI filed its first chargesheet in an Ahmedabad court saying that the shooting was a staged encounter carried out in cold blood.[5]
Ishrat's family as well as several politicians and activists maintained that she was innocent.[6] CBI declared the encounter as staged, but did not comment on whether Ishrat Jahan was an LeT associate or not.[7] In 2004, a Lahore-based publication, Ghazwa Times quoted the Jamat-ud-Dawah, affiliated with LeT, claiming that Ishrat and her companions were LeT operatives.[8] In 2007 though, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, retracted the statement as a "journalistic mistake", offering apology to Ishrat's family. No explanation was given as to why was it retracted after 3 years.[9] In 2010, some media outlets reported that the convicted terrorist David Headley had implicated Ishrat in terrorist activities in a statement given to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).[10] However, the NIA called these reports as "baseless",[11] and the CBI suspects that this input was fabricated by the IPS officer Rajendra Kumar, who is a suspect in the fake encounter case.[12] After further investigation, in 2011, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) told the Gujarat High Court that the encounter was not genuine, and the victims were killed prior to the date of the staged encounter.[13][14] In June 2013, the Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim told the office of Prime Minister and Home Minister of India that the Bureau had enough evidence to prove that Ishrat was a part of an LeT module which planned to kill Narendra Modi and Lal Krishna Advani.[15]
In February 2016, convicted terrorist David Headley testified via video from US, before a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was a member of [16] Pakistan-based terror outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba.[17][18]

Victims[edit]

Ishrat Jahan Raza
Ishrat Jahan Raza (1985 – 15 June 2004) was a second year Bachelor of Science student at Mumbai's Guru Nanak Khalsa College.[19] She was the second of 7 siblings. Her lower-middle-class family, hailing from Bihar, lived in the Rashid compound in the Muslim-dominated area of Mumbra in Thane district in Maharashtra. Having lost her father Shamim two years before her own death, Ishrat taught tuition and did embroidery work to support her family. Ishrat's father Mohammad Shamim Raza was the proprietor of a Mumbai-based construction company called Asian Constructions while mother Shamima worked for a long time at a medicine packaging company in Vashi.[20]
Ishrat was employed by Javed Sheikh (Pranesh) as a secretary handling his accounts.[21] Javed used to take her out of town at times on work.[22] FBI interrogation of David Headley (mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks) revealed that Ishrat Jahan was a Fidayeen working for Muzammil Bhat. [23] David Headley also admitted during interrogation by the NIA that she was a fidayeen, whose target was the then CM of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi, and was working for LeT. [24]
Pranesh Pillai
Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Gulam Sheikh was the son of Gopinatha Pillai, a native of Noornad in Kerala. He married Sajida, and had three children, including a daughter.[25] Javed Sheikh had migrated to Mumbra in Mumbai after marrying Sajida. Before his death, he had been booked for four assault cases in Mumbai and Pune, and had also been charged with involvement in a fake currency racket.[26] Born Pranesh Pillai,in the mid-1990s, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Javed Sheikh to marry a Muslim woman called Sajida. Gujarat Police recovered two passports from Javed: one obtained using his original name Pranesh and the second one in his new name.[26]
Ishrat's family first met Javed Sheikh just two months before her death.[20] He had taken Ishrat to Nasik, Bangalore and Lucknow, where he is believed to have met Amjad.[26] Javed Sheikh was regularly in touch with LeT operatives particularly Muzamil Bhat and Indian Govt says they have wiretap to prove it. Javed Sheikh travelled to Dubai in 2003 and to Oman in 2004. His wife Sajida said he came back indoctrinated from 2003 Dubai visit. [27]
Amjad Ali Rana
Amjad Ali Rana, also known as Akbar or Salim, was originally a resident of the Haveli Deewan village in the Bhalwal Tehsilof Pakistan. According to the CBI chargesheet, he told the Gujarat Police that he was planning to commit a terrorist act in Ahmedabad. The CBI also stated that he was abudcted by the Gujarat Police and IB officials from Gota on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.[28] He was found dead with an AK-56 rifle near his body, which according to CBI, was planted by the police officials.[29] Amjad is believed to have met Javed several times in Oman, and also Javed and Ishrat in Ibrahimpur once.[26]Amjad introduced Ishrat and Javed to Zeeshan, the fourth victim.
Zeeshan Johar
Zeeshan (alias Jisan Johar alias Abdul Ghani Son of Kalu alias Janbaaz), along with Amjad, is said to have been caught in a trespassing case in Srinagar in 2003.[26] Nobody claimed the bodies of Amjad and Zeeshan after the encounter.[26] An identity card with a Pakistan address was reportedly recovered from Zeeshan's body. However, a later report by the metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang stated that identity cards were forged by the police and the two men were Indian citizens, although it did not give any evidence on this.[30]

The encounter[edit]

Ishrat had left her house on 11 June 2004, four days before she was killed. According to Ishrat's brother, their mother Shameema did not like her going out of town with Javed. Therefore, she did not inform her when she left for Nashik.[22]Ishrat made a phone call to her mother on 11 June spoke with her mother. According to her mother, Ishrat called her from a public phone booth outside a Nashik bus stop, and told her that "Uncle Javed Sheikh hasn’t come yet." A few minutes later, Ishrat made a second call and told her mother in a terrified voice that Javed had come but with some "strange men", and then hung abruptly.[20] She reportedly made another phone call on 12 June, informing her family that she had met Javed.
On 15 June 2004, the Gujarat police stated that Ishrat, along with three other people, had been gunned down nearAhmedabad by a police team belonging to the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of the Ahmedabad City Police.[31][32] The four were allegedly killed after the police chased their blue Tata Indica car. It is not clear how the four wound up in Gujarat from Maharashtra.[33]
The police claimed that all four were connected with the Pakistan-based terror group LeT and were in Gujarat to assassinate Narendra Modi, in order to avenge the communal riots of 2002 which had led to the deaths of numerous Muslims.[32] The police team was led by then Deputy Commissioner of Police Dhananjay G. Vanzara, who was later jailed for involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter killing.[34][35]

Allegations[edit]

A probe into the encounter was ordered after Ishrat's family insisted that she was innocent, and the Mumbai police said she had no criminal background, and their investigation did not find anything that could implicate her.[31] A number of politicians and the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission demanded an inquiry.[34] Ishrat's funeral procession was attended by over 10,000 people in Mumbra and the Samajwadi Party state president Abu Azmi said that he would demand a CBI probe into the killings.[36]
In 2004, a news report published in Lahore-based Ghazwa Times (considered to be a mouthpiece of the LeT) claimed that Ishrat was its operative, and was with her "husband" at the time of her death.[8] Ghazwa claimed on its website that "veil of Ishrat Jahan, a woman LeT operative, was removed by Gujarat police and her body kept with other mujahideens".[37]
The Gujarat government had faced strong criticism by human rights groups for anti-Muslim human rights violations, following the communal riots of 2002.[31] During this period, there had been several police encounter deaths in the Gujarat, three of which have been attributed to attempts to kill Narendra Modi in retaliation for the alleged involvement of the state machinery in the riots. Some human rights activists have alleged that many of these alleged encounters actually happen in police custody.[38] They claimed that there is a pattern that many of these encounters followed: they always took place in the wee hours of the morning in a deserted area, with no witnesses; a vigorous exchange of fire resulted in the deaths of all the terrorists, while the police received no injuries; and the diary of the accused was often recovered, and contained incriminating evidence.[39] In 2007, several of the policemen held responsible for the death of Ishrat faced trial in connection with the 2005 fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife. The police officer D.G. Vanzara, who led the encounter was later jailed for his involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter. This resulted in an investigation into the encounter involving Ishrat.
In Ishrat's case, the Gujarat police claimed to have received information on the assassination plot from the Mumbai police. The Mumbai police however denied there was any such information.[39] According to People's Union for Civil Liberties, the Gujarat police did not follow normal procedures in their investigations. No FIR was lodged with the local area police station where the encounter occurred,no charge sheet, no inquest report, and no witness statement.[39] No bullet marks or damage was observed on the road or surrounding area.[39]

S P Tamang report[edit]

The report by the Metropolitan Magistrate S P Tamang submitted in the metropolitan court Ahmedabad on 7 September 2009 said the four persons were killed in police custody.[31][40] It implicated a number of top police officials for the deaths, which were allegedly staged in order to win promotions and rewards.[31]
The Ahmedabad Metropolitan court ruled that the killing of Ishrat Jehan was a fake encounter,[4] and Ishrat's family stated that she was not connected with LeT at all. A petition led the high court to constitute a police team, headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Pramod Kumar to look into the incident.[41]
In the 243-page report, Tamang named the "encounter specialist" of the Gujarat police, the then head of the DCB, D.G. Vanzara, among others, as the accused in the "cold-blooded murder" of Ishrat and three others.[32][35]
Tamang's report said the Crime Branch police kidnapped Ishrat and the others from Mumbai on 12 June 2004 and brought them to Ahmedabad. The four were killed on the night of 14 June in police custody, but the police claimed that an "encounter" took place the next morning on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Rigor mortis had set in between 11 pm and midnight the previous night, indicating that the police had later shot bullets into Ishrat's body to substantiate the encounter theory.[32]
Tamang said there was no evidence to link the victims with the LeT. There was also nothing to indicate that they had come to Gujarat to kill Modi.[32] The report said explosives, rifles and other weapons allegedly found in the car, and the weapons found on their person were all planted by the police.[32]
Claiming that the police officers were motivated by their personal interests in getting promotions and appreciation from the Chief Minister, Tamang included a list of top police officers, whom he held responsible. It includes Vanzara and his then deputy Narendra K. Amin, both of whom were already arrested in the Sohrabuddin encounter killing case. The list also included K.R. Kaushik, who was then the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, P.P. Pandey, who was then the chief of the Crime Branch, and another alleged encounter specialist Tarun Barot.[32]
The Gujarat High Court stayed the Tamang report on 9 September 2009 but gave liberty to Ishrat's mother to produce the report before the three-member committee constituted by the High Court to investigate the encounter. Justice Kalpesh Javheri said the observations made in the report were beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial magistrate.[42] The Division Bench directed the Registrar-General of the High Court to institute a departmental inquiry into the conduct of Mr. Tamang in holding a parallel inquiry into the encounter, when the High Court was already seized of the matter, and submitting the report without its permission.[43][44]

Further investigation[edit]

The Gujarat State Government challenged the report of the metropolitan magistrate, saying that the policemen accused of fake encounter were not given an opportunity to present their side of the arguments. Gujarat government’s petition in the High Court against the Tamang report said it should be scrapped as it was “illegal and doubtful.”[45] The case was thus taken to the Gujarat High Court. The Gujarat high court stated that Ishrat Jahan encounter case was of national importance, and ordered the police witnesses to be placed where they would not be working as subordinates to officials accused in the case.[46]
In July 2010, some media outlets reported that the LeT terrorist David Headley involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attackshad named Ishrat as a member of LeT.[47] However, in a letter to the Gujarat High Court, the NIA clarified that these media reports were false and David Headly did not speak about Ishrat Jahan.[11] IB has alleged that the original NIA report did have excerpts detailing Headley's account about Ishrat's links with LeT: these two paragraphs were later deleted.[48]
The Gujarat High Court in August 2010 held that the motive described by magistrate SP Tamang in his inquiry report on the Ishrat Jahan encounter case cannot be accepted and also raised doubts on the magistrate's conclusion about the time of death of the four.[49]
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Karnail Singh, was set up to probe the case further. The SIT sent four teams to Srinagar, Delhi, Lucknow and Nashik to probe Ishrat's alleged terrorist links.[50] The team's forensic and ballistic experts, reconstructed the events of the encounter.[51] Sri Karnail Singh appointed a team headed by Professor T D Dogra and Dr. Rajinder Singh, Director CFSL Delhi to help reconstruction of scene of occurrence.[52]
On 21 November 2011, the SIT told the Gujarat High Court that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not genuine. After the SIT filed its report, the High Court ordered that a complaint under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder) has to be filed against those involved in the fake encounter, in which over 20 policemen, including senior IPS officers, were involved.[13][14]The CBI began investigations in the case with the help of Gujarat IPS officer Satish Verma. The CBI in their investigations for the first time tightened it's noose against a top cop in any encounter case, PP Pandey. PP Pandey had plotted Ishrat's encounter with the Central IB official Rajendra Kumar[53]

Arrests[edit]

After dithering for over an year,[54] on 21 February 2013 CBI arrested Gujarat IPS officer G L Singhal who was then Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Branch at the time of the incident, in connection with the alleged fake encounter. The CBI in its FIR alleged that Singhal, now Superintendent of Police at State Crime Records Bureau played an active role in the encounter which was later found to be fake by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Gujarat High Court.[55][56] Besides Singhal, CBI had previously arrested senior police officers, Tarun Barot, J G Parmar, N K Amin, Bharat Patel and Anaju Chaudhary. Though when, even after the mandatory 90 days CBI didn't file their chargesheet in the case, all the accused were released on bail, except Amin.[57] A CBI court, issued an arrest warrant for another accused Additional DGP (Crime) P P Pandey, who is absconding, though he has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court to get the FIR cancelled.[58]
On 4 June, suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara was arrested by the CBI, from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, after he was transferred a day ago from a Mumbai Jail since 2007, where he was lodged as he is an accused in Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter killing case of 2005 as well as Tulsi Prajapati encounter killing case. CBI alleged that he led the team of Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad, on whose tip off the Ahmedabad Police went ahead with the encounter, and wanted to interrogate him further.[58] The following day, an Ahmedabad court remanded Vanzara to CBI custody till 10 June.[59]
The CBI has also expressed desire to arrest Rajendra Kumar, but Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim has opposed it on many occasions, drawing the ire of CBI.[60]

2013 developments[edit]

In June 2013, India Today reported that Asif Ibrahim, the chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), had told the Prime Minister's Office and the Home Minister that the IB had "enough evidence" to prove that Ishrat Jahan belonged to an LeT module which planned to kill Narendra Modi and Lal Krishna Advani. India Today reported Ibrahim as telling the Government that David Coleman Headley had revealed this in his interrogation by the FBI.[15] The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations had told the Ministry of Home Affairs about Headley’s claims on a "female suicide bomber named Ishrat Jahaan.".[61] In a note on 13 October 2010, the NIA had said that Headley had told them Ishrat Jehan had been part of a "botched" operation run by the terrorist group.[62]

Headlines Today report[edit]

On 13 June 2013 Headlines Today, an English news channel and subsidiary of India Today group, revealed that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani were among the leaders who were on the hit-list of the alleged terrorists killed in an encounter with Gujarat Police in Ahmedabad on 15 June 2004. It also claimed that Ishrat Jahan was among the terrorists assigned to execute the plot. It released unsubstantiated audio tapes of the conversation of allegedly a LET commander and Javed Sheikh,a man killed in the encounter. The news channel also produced the letter of IB chief to CBI director, in which he said that David Headley also revealed that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative. However, Headley's confession to the FBI had already been dismissed as hearsay by the NIA[63][64]
On 14 June, the leaked tapes were produced as evidence before the Gujarat High Court by the counsel for the Gujarat Government, Tushar Mehta. However, the bench refused to consider them as evidence, asking Mehta to take them to CBI for investigation.[65]
A group of social activists alleged that the IB was selectively leaking uncorroborated tapes to the media in order to scuttle the CBI probe just 24 hours ahead of the scheduled hearing of the case in the Gujarat High Court. They also criticized the media for airing the telephone calls without any forensic tests or voice tests.[66]

Tehelka report[edit]

In June 2013, the Tehelka magazine published an exposé[67] that revealed that the CBI has in its possession an audio recording of a conversation between Gujarat's former Minister of State Praful Patel, senior IAS officer G C Murmu, and other top officials in a meeting called to chalk out a plan to safeguard the interests of the officers whose names could crop up in the investigation. The conversation was secretly recorded by a meeting attendee, Girish Laxman Singhal, one of the two accused police officers who have been arrested by the CBI in the case.[68]

Resignation of Vanzara[edit]

On September 1, Senior Gujarat Police Officer D G Vanzara resigned from IPS, blaming lack of interest shown by State Government in rescuing him and other Police officers jailed in Fake encounter cases. He sent his resignation from Sabarmati Jail, where he is currently lodged.[69]

2014 developments[edit]

2014 CBI report[edit]

In May 2014, CBI filed a report before a special court in Ahmedabad that it did not have prosecutable evidence against former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah.[70]

The CBI Chargesheet[edit]

A selection of the chargesheet detailing the differences of CBI investigations with that of IB is given below.
The Investigation revealed that in the last week of April 2004, Jishan Johar (deceased) on his arrival at Ahmedabad was taken into illegal custody by a joint team of accused Gujarat Police officers and SIB officers of Ahmedabad consisting of GL Singhal, Rajinder Kumar. Thereafter Jishan Johar was confined at house no. 164/165 in Gota Housing, near Vaishno Devi Crossing, off SG Highway, Ahmedabad and was put under audio-tap by Rajeev Wankhede, MK Sinha, and T Mittal the SIB officers and the surveillance was maintained by CJ Goswami PSI, PG Waghela PSI, Hanubha Narsinh Dodiya HC and Zahir Ahmed PC.
Investigation revealed that on 26 May 2004, a team of DCB, Ahmedabad City, composed of accused NK Amin, Tarun Barot and IK Chauhan with the assistance of Shri MK Sinha and Rajeev Wankhede, ACIOs of SIB, Ahmedabad abducted the deceased Amjadali from Gota Crossing on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Investigation revealed that the above team of accused officers after abducting the deceased Amjadali, confined him in illegal custody at Arham Farm House from 26 May to early morning 15 June.
Investigation revealed that on 12 June 2004, accused N.K.Amin and Tarun Barot with the assistance of M.K.Sinha and Rajeev Wankhede, ACIOs of SIB, Ahmedabad, abducted Javed and Ishrat Jahan from Vasad Toll booth, District Anand, Gujarat, when they were travelling in the blue Indica car bearing registration no. MH 02 JA 4786. The above accused police officers and SIB officers took Javed and Ishrat Jahan to Khodiyar Farm, off SG Highway, Ahmedabad, and kept them in Illegal custody...
Shri DG Vanzara, Shri PP Pandey, Shri Rajinder Kumar and Dr NK Amin had met Javed and Ishrat Jahan during their illegal custody on different days and times. On 13 June 2004, Jishan Johar was shifted from Gota Housing confinement to Khodiyar Farm house by Shri Tarun Barot.
That in the evening of 13 June 2004, Shri DG Vanzara, Shri PP Pandey and Shri Rajinder Kumar had discussed in the Bungalow No. 15, Duffnala, Shahibaug office chamber of Shri DG Vanzara about the further plan about elimination of the four detainees i.e. Jishan Johar, Amjadali, Javed and Ishrat and lodging a FIR showing their death in an encounter.
That on 14 June 2004, Shri GL Singhal had gone to the office of the SIB as per instructions of Shri DG Vanzara, and had collected weapons in a bag from SIB Office Ahmedabad. He had sent this bag through Shri Nizamuddin Burhanmiyan to Shri Tarun A Barot, who was at Khodiyar Farm...
The investigation revealed that, following accused officers had fired on the four deceased from their service weapons as detailed hereunder:
» NK Amin fired 5 rounds from his 9mm pistol;
» JG Parmar fired 4 rounds from his revolver;
» Tarun Barot fired 6 rounds from his revolver and 3 rounds from the revolver of IK Chauhan;
» Mohan Kalaswa fired 32 rounds from his AK-47 and 10 rounds from the AK47 of Commando Mohan Nanji; and
» Anaju Jiman Chaudhary fired 10 rounds from his Stengun.
The investigation revealed that the above firing had taken place in two successive stages. It is revealed that in the first round of firing, Sh. Tarun Barot and Mohan Kalaswa exhausted their ammunition and stopped firing. Thereafter for the second round of firing, they forcibly took away the weapons of IK Chauhan and Mohan Nanji respectively and Sh. Barot fired 3 rounds from the weapon of IK Chauhan while Mohan Kalasawa fired another 10 rounds from the weapon of Mohan Nanji Menat. Further Commando Mohan Kalasawa was made to fire several rounds from AK 56 rifle (planted on the Amjadali Rana), on the official Gypsy vehicle of Dr NK Amin. This AK 56 rifle was brought to the scene by Shri Tarun Barot. After firing from this weapon, it was placed near the dead body of Amjadali...
That the investigation conducted so far disclosed that the above said fake encounter was a result of Joint operation of Gujarat Police and SIB, Amedabad. In this operation the overt acts committed by the accused Gujarat Police officers have been established by the evidence on record. However, further investigation is in progress against the SIB officers namely Rajinder Kumar, MK Sinha, Rajeev Wankhede, T Mittal, and others.
Therefore in view of the above facts and circumstances, the Investigating Agency CBI seeks permission of the Honorable Court to continue investigation against the SIB officers named above and others.
[71]

See also[edit]

  • Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter
  • Encounter killings by police

    Death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case is an ongoing criminal case in the Gujarat state of India, after the state police killed Sohrabuddin Anwarhussain Sheikh on November 26, 2005, while he was in police custody.
    Apart from being involved in the criminal extortion racket in Gujarat, Sheikh was also involved in arms smuggling in Madhya Pradesh, and also had murder cases registered against him in Gujarat and Rajasthan.[1] Sheikh was also claimed by the police to be associated with the banned global terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani intelligence agencyInter-Services Intelligence, and was alleged to have planned to create communal chaos in the state by assassinating "an important political leader".[1][2] Although the target of Sheikh's plans has never been officially revealed, the impression was given to political effect that it was to have been Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Sheikh's wife Kauser Bi also disappeared on the same day as his killing. A year later, on December 26, 2006, Sheikh's associate Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to Sheikh's killing, was also killed in another police encounter shooting.[3]
    Sheikh was alleged by the police to be extorting protection money from local marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan.[3]He was also claimed to have links to fellow underworld criminals Sharifkhan Pathan, Abdul Latif, Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, who were all members and associates of India's largest organized crime network and underworld mafia operated byDawood Ibrahim.[1][2][3] During investigations before he was arrested, the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat police claimed to have found 40 AK-47 assault rifles from his village residence in Madhya Pradesh.[4]
    The state government's lawyer, KTS Tulsi, later submitted before the Supreme Court that the 'The preliminary inquiry has found that it was a fake encounter.'[5] Such encounters are known in India as encounter killings, and in this case, as "fake encounters".[6][7] It is alleged that the killing was orchestrated by senior police officers and at the behest of Gujarat's Home minister Amit Shah.[8] Shah is a senior politician in the Bharatiya Janata Party government and a close confidant of chief minister Narendra Modi.[9] Modi, as well as Gulab Chand Kataria, a senior BJP leader and ex-minister from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan, have also been investigated in the matter.[10][11] More than 10 police officers were subsequently arrested for the killings of Sheikh and Prajapati.[3]

    Cases against Sohrabuddin Sheikh[edit]

    Sohrabuddin Sheikh was accused of possessing 40 AK-47 assault rifles that were recovered from his house in Jharania village of Ujjain district in 1995.[4] At the time of his killing, he also had more than 60 pending cases against him, ranging from extorting protection money from marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan, to arms smuggling in Madhya Pradesh, to murder cases both in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Sheikh was a notorious underworld criminal with links to the Sharifkhan Pathan alias Chhota Dawood and Abdul Latif gangs, and with Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, both known to be close to India's underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim.[1][12] To escape the police, Sheikh fled with his family from Gujarat to the city ofHyderabad in the state of Telangana.

    Abduction and murder[edit]

    On November 23, 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh was traveling on a public bus with his wife, Kauser Bi, from Hyderabad toSangli, Maharashtra. At 01:30 am, the Gujarat police ATS stopped the bus and took them away.[13] Kauser wanted to stay with her husband, but was taken to a Disha farmhouse outside Ahmedabad instead.
    Three days later, Sheikh was killed in an alleged staged encounter on a highway at Vishala Circle near Ahmedabad. The report filed in the Supreme Court by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) quotes a number of witnesses and builds up a narrative of the killing.[9]
    Two days after Sheikh was killed, Kauser Bi was allegedly strangulated and cremated in Illol, the native village of deputy commissioner of police D G Vanzara.[14] The killing of Kauser Bi was subsequently admitted by the Gujarat state attorney in front of the Supreme Court.[15][16]

    Exposure and state investigations[edit]

    The encounter killing was not exposed until a media report made a year later. This report, together with a petition filed in the Supreme Court by Sheikh's brother, led to investigations into the incident. In April 2007, senior state police officers were arrested for their connection to the case. In July 2010, Amit Shah was arrested, and it was reported that the CBI was interested in investigating Chief Minister Narendra Modi as well, and because of this, the case should be placed under the jurisdiction of a court not in Gujarat.[10]

    Media report and Supreme Court petition[edit]

    The encounter killing was exposed after a few police inspectors boasted about it over drinks with journalist Prashant Dayal. Dayal conducted his own investigations at the farmhouse, and then at Illol, and ascertained that a burqa-clad woman had been cremated there. He then broke the story in November 2006, in the leading Gujarati newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar,[5] and gave details of the encounter.
    Meanwhile, Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin petitioned the Supreme Court claiming that the Gujarat police had orchestrated the encounter and demanded to be given information on the location of his sister-in-law Kauser. In March 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a time-bound investigation. Inspector-General Geeta Johri was given the task of conducting the investigation, and was to report directly to the court. She gathered evidence that implicated the role of several police officers in the fake encounter. However, it has been claimed that she may have "steered clear of linking them to a political conspiracy".[17] Based on the evidence collected by Johri, DIG Police Rajnish Rai on April 24, 2007, arrested DIG (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, Superintendent of Police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M.N. Dinesh of Rajasthan police, who is alleged to have been working at the behest of the marble lobby.[11]
    The Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government to place before it the inquiry reports prepared by Johri, which had allegedly said that Sheikh was killed in an encounter killing. Johri was removed from the investigation after this report was published.[16] On May 3, 2007, the court asked the government whether Johri had been dismissed from the investigation so that a further probe would not be carried out, and directed it to submit a final report on May 15, the day it will give the final order.[18]

    Inspector General's report[edit]

    In Part B of the report, Johri recorded facts relating to repeated attempts by the accused police officers and Shah to sabotage the Supreme Court mandated enquiry. The report states that Shah "brought to bear pressure" on the enquiry process, with the result that Ms. Johri was directed to suspend the enquiry and the enquiry papers were taken away from her "under the guise of scrutiny." Johri also records that Shah even "directed Shri G.C. Raigar, Additional Director General of Police, CID (Crime & Railways) to provide him with the list of witnesses, both police and private, who are yet to be contacted by CID (Crime) for recording their statement in the said enquiry."[19]
    The government was asked by the court to give the reason for Johri's removal from the case on May 15.[20] Not finding the Gujarat government's explanations satisfactory, the bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyam ruled that Johri would report directly to the Supreme Court. She was reinstated in the same position and also asked to head the case.[21]

    Allegations of involvement in Haren Pandya murder[edit]

    The newspaper DNA, citing sources in the Gujarat State Police, reported in August 2011 that Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram may have been "used to kill Haren Pandya",[22] the erstwhile BJP leader who was once close to Narendra Modi. The murder remains unsolved[23] after 12 people arrested for it were released in what the high court called a "botched up and blinkered" investigation.[24] According to the DNA report, Sohrabuddin was initially given the task but he back-pedalled and the murder was eventually executed by Tulsiram. The encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram were a result of unease among the conspirators:
    However, the alleged conspirators at whose behest Pandya was killed began to lose confidence in Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram and, eventually, their equations began to worsen, the source said. The change of power at the Centre after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections gave the alleged conspirators another reason to eliminate Sohrabuddin and Tulsi in fake encounters.[22]
    A similar charge has been made by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who discovered evidence for Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram's involvement and forwarded it to Amit Shah, who sounded "very disturbed over the telephone" and asked him "not to speak about it to anyone".[25] Bhatt followed this up with a letter to Shah detailing the "involvement of Sohrabuddin and some policemen in the murder".
    Bhatt was subsequently suspended from the Gujarat police.
    D.G. Vanzara, ex-IPS who had originally investigated the Pandya murder,[26] and is currently in jail on charges of coordinating the Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram encounters, told the CBI in Sept 2013 that about the role of Sohrabuddin in Pandya's murder.[27] Vanzara has also blamed Modi's Home minister Amit Shah for ordering the series of encounter killings.[28]

    CBI enquiry[edit]

    Despite the detailed nature of the Johri report, the Supreme Court felt impelled, given the allegations of involvement by senior politicians, that the case should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation for investigation. Since 2007, the Gujarat government had strongly resisted these attempts.[19][29] The CBI took help of T D Dogra of AIIMS New Delhi and Forensic experts of Central Forensic Science Laboratory New Delhi in Forensic investigations.[30]
    Media pressure began building up, with calls from organizations such as Amnesty International.[31] Eventually, on 12 January 2010, the Supreme Court observed that "the facts surrounding Prajapati's death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness".[32] The court then directed the CBI to take over the probe.
    Subsequently, the CBI arrested senior Gujarat police officer Abhay Chudasama, who was charged with extortion in partnership with Sheikh.[33] After Chudasama's arrest, the CBI also charged the now ex-home minister Shah with collusion.[9]
    Suspicion of political interference intensified after the evidence handed over to the CBI from the state investigations showed that 331 phone calls by Shah to the concerned police officers had been deleted from the records.[34] After media reports revealed the original records of calls from Shah to Vanzara and other police officers executing the killings, the CBI acquired the original records, and ex-police chief O.P. Mathur, who was then Director of Raksha Shakti University, was indicted for deleting evidence.[34] Shah was subsequently named as the "prime accused" in the case.[35]
    A CBI witness also claimed that they were paid Rs. 10 crores by R.K. Patni, the owner of RK marbles who was acquainted with Indian National Congress leaders,[36] to eliminate Sheikh.[37] But BJP MLAs Gulab Chand Kataria and Om Prakash Mathur from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan also got named in the case. Kataria, who visited Gujarat to lobby for the release of Rajasthan police officer Dinesh M.N. in 2007,[11] denied all charges.[38] On September 1, IPS Officer D G Vanzara resigned, blaming lack of interest shown by State Government in rescuing him and other Police officers jailed in Fake encounter cases.[39]

    CBI Court drops case against Amit Shah[edit]

    As per media reports, the Special Court has dropped Amit Shah from the Sohrabuddin Case owing that there was no legal evidence against him in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case of 2005 and discharged him as an accused. "There is substance in the contention of Shah's counsel S V Raju that the charges against him were politically framed, said special judge M B Gosavi. "There is no prosecutable material against Shah which requires a trial," the judge added. The case against Shah was that a conspiracy was hatched by Rajasthan home minister Gulabchand Kataria with the aid of his political connections in Gujarat and top police officials from Gujarat and Rajasthan to do away with Sohrabuddin. But the court has now held that there is nothing to show a "meeting of minds that is required to prove a conspiracy.

    See also[edit]


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