M A I N   N E W S

After Sohrabuddin, now its Ishrat
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 2
The family of a young girl killed by disgraced Gujarat encounter specialist D.G. Vanjara in 2004 is demanding a probe by the CBI into the incident.

The girl, Ishrat Jahan (then 19), along with three young men were shot dead by Vanjara and his team near Ahmedabad in June 2004. Though Vanjara had claimed that Ishrat and the others had links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, no further proof about the victims’ terror links were ever made available to the public. The file pertaining to the case, too, has been declared closed.

Vanjara has already been arrested along with three of his colleagues for the cold-blooded killing of a small-time criminal Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi in 2005.

Incidentally, Vanjara had claimed that Ishrat and the three others, too, were members of an LeT cell and were planning to kill Modi.

The Maharashtra police which quickly began a probe into Ishrat’s antecedents could not find anything to link her with any terror group.

Her family is now demanding that the girl’s reputation be cleared. “At least the Maharashtra government should support us and give Ishrat a clean chit,” her sister Mushrat told journalists here.

Ishrat’s relatives say they have become outcasts in the Muslim ghetto town of Mumbra in Mumbai’s outskirts.

After the death of her father, young Ishrat took on the responsibility of looking after the seven-member family by giving tuitions to local children. Since her killing Ishrat’s four sisters and a brother have had to give up studies and take on odd jobs to survive.

Incidentally, the identity of two of the men whose bodies were found alongside Ishrat and her male friend Javed from Kerala were never identified. The Gujarat police had then claimed that the two were Pakistani nationals. Javed who was born Pranesh Pillai had converted to Islam and was running a business in Pune.

Activists in Gujarat had then criticised the police for claiming to have recovered a diary in Ishrat's handwriting allegedly detailing a plan to kill Modi. Suspicions were raised that the Gujarat police might have coerced Ishrat to write the diary before she was killed.

Gujarat HC Judge refuses to hear plea against Modi

Ahmedabad, May 2
Gujarat High Court Judge M.D. Shah has refused to hear the case seeking direction for filing First Information Report (FIR) against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, some state ministers and police officials for the 2002 riots.

When the petition filed by Jakia Jafri, wife of former MP Eshan Jafri, killed along with others in the Gulbarg society of the city in 2002 riots, came for hearing yesterday, Shah said, "not before this court", petitioner's counsel Sohel Tirmizi said today.

The judge did not give any reason for the refusal of hearing the case, the advocate added.

The matter will now be presented before another judge on June 12 after the summer vacation.

The petitioner had send a complaint to be registered as FIR to the then DGP A.K. Bhargava by registered post from Surat. However, the report was not registered following which she approached the court, Tanvir Jafri, son of Jakia said.

The petition was moved by Jakia Jafri and Citizen for Peace and Justice (CJP) headed by Teesta Setalvad.

The petition names 63 persons including Modi and director general of police P.C. Pande, charging them with conspiracy and abetment to commit murders. — PTI

Kin of another encounter victim to move court

Ahmedabad, May 2
The father of another alleged fake encounter victim in Gujarat said today that he would move the Supreme Court for a fresh probe into the killing of his son, who had been arrested on the charge of plotting to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi here nearly five years ago.

“We will approach the Supreme Court for an inquiry since we believe my innocent son (Sameer Khan Pathan) was killed. It was not an encounter but murder”, said Sarfaraz Khan.

Sameer Khan was killed in an alleged encounter on October 22, 2002, 10 days after he was arrested by the crime branch of the Ahmedabad police under the charge of D. G. Vanzara, the IPS officer arrested in connection with the killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi in a fake encounter. — PTI