The Ishrat Jehan encounter returns to haunt Gujarat police: A magisterial inquiry has concluded that the encounter was fake.
In 2004 Ishrat Jehan and four others were killed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch. The Police said they were Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives who had come to Ahmedabad with a plan to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Now, a 243-page damning report by Magistrate SP Tamang says: "Ishrat was innocent and was killed only because she was a Muslim and fitted the Gujarat Police's idea of a terrorist."
The report says the police carried out this fake encounter to get rewards and promotions. To curry favour with the Chief Minister they also floated a story that she and her associates had come to eliminate him.
Among the 20 policemen accused of her murder:
- Gujarat Additional DGP (Intelligence) P C Pandey
- Deputy Commissioner of Police (Gujarat ATS) G L Singhal
- Retired Police Commissioner K R Kaushik
- Police Inspector with Ahmedabad Crime Branch Tarun Barot
- And the then Additional Police Commissioner (Crime Branch) D G Vanazara and then Assistant Commissioner of Police N K Amin both already in jail in connection the Sohrabudddin fake encounter case.
"It's cold blooded murder and the court came to the conclusion that the murder was committed for personal gain and to get the praise of the chief minister," said Mukul Sinha, Ishrat Jehan's family's lawyer.
The probe is a result of pressure from Ishrat's family who all along maintained that their 19-year-old daughter was innocent.
Their stand now is vindicated.
