Cop accused by CBI of firing at Ishrat Jahan is back at work
Nineteen-year-old Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan was killed by Gujarat police officers near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
Weeks after Gujarat reinstated IPS officer G L Singhal, one of the
key accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case,
another accused policeman is back at work.
The suspension of constable Anaju Chaudhary, accused by the CBI of
firing 10 rounds from a sten gun at Ishrat and three others, was revoked
on July 2 by the state government. He has been posted to the State
Reserve Police (SRP) camp in Godhra.
Chaudhary is the third accused to be reinstated. Inspector Bharat A
Patel, who was arrested but never chargesheeted, was the first to return
to work. He is currently posted at Prantij police station in
Sabarkantha district.
On May 27, the government revoked the suspension of Singhal. The
order reinstating him as commandant of the SRP in Gandhinagar was with
retrospective effect from May 16.
Nineteen-year-old Mumbai girl Ishrat, her friend Pranesh Pillai
(alias Javed Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by
Gujarat police officers near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The officers
claimed they were gunned down in an encounter, that they were
Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives on a mission to kill the then chief minister
Narendra Modi.
But the CBI said their investigation found nothing to suggest that the four had come to assassinate Modi. Two earlier probes — by a magistrate and a special investigation team constituted on the orders of the Gujarat High Court — had declared the encounter as fake. The magistrate had said the officers killed the four to get promotions and laurels.
But the CBI said their investigation found nothing to suggest that the four had come to assassinate Modi. Two earlier probes — by a magistrate and a special investigation team constituted on the orders of the Gujarat High Court — had declared the encounter as fake. The magistrate had said the officers killed the four to get promotions and laurels.
In February this year, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet in
the case — the two chargesheets have been filed against 11 accused.
On May 7, the agency gave a clean chit to Gujarat’s former home minister Amit Shah, citing insufficient evidence.
On May 7, the agency gave a clean chit to Gujarat’s former home minister Amit Shah, citing insufficient evidence.
