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SIT submits report on bogus encounter case

The court, on October 7, had asked the SIT to file its final report by November 18 with its conclusion whether the June 4, 2004 shoot-out on the outskirts of the city was genuine or fake.

A SIT official told Khaleej Times that the high court would now look into the findings, including video recordings of witnesses’ statements, on the nature of the gunfight and decide the next course of action, adding that the court would take the reports up for hearing on November 21.

Ishrat, a 19-year-old Mumbai collegian, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in a shootout by Ahmedabad Crime Branch in June, 2004.

The Crime Branch had then claimed that the four were Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists out to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The probe in the case was supervised directly by the high court which constituted the SIT last year to investigate the genuineness of the gunfight after petitions were filed by Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar and Gopinath Pillai, father of Pranesh, raising questions over the police version of the incident.

During the last hearing on October 7, the court had acknowledged the progress made by the SIT and observed the investigations were nearing the end, adding that if the SIT established that the encounter was genuine, then there would be no need of filing a fresh FIR but if the team, concluded that it was stage-managed, the court would give directions accordingly.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com