Ishrat Jahan case: SC dismisses IPS officer Amin's bail plea

The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed the plea by Gujarat cadre IPS officer Narendra Kumar Amin who is in jail for his alleged involvement in the 2004 staged shoot-out case in which Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed.

A bench of Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice C. Nagappan in their judgment dismissed the bail plea by Amin who had contended that he was entitled to "default bail" as the charge sheet in his case was not filed within 90 days as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Amin had contended that he was arrested on April 4, 2013 but was produced before the court on April 5 and the charge sheet was filed on July 3 - which was one day beyond the 90 days limit for filing charge sheet which entitled him for the grant of "default bail".

He had contended that the failure of the prosecuting agency to file the charge sheet in murder cases within 90 days entitles an accused for a default bail - which he held as an indivisible right of the accused.

However, the prosecuting agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), without disputing the delay in the filing of the charge sheet with all accompanying documents, had argued whether technicality of charge sheet not being accompanied with the documents would be sufficient for the grant of bail to the accused.

Amin's bail plea was rejected by an additional chief judicial magistrate July 9, 2013 and the appeal against the order dismissed by the Gujarat High Court Aug 16.

Ishrat Jahan and her three alleged associates Pranesh Gopinath Pilai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in a staged-shoot out June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had described them as Pakistani fidayeen who came from Jammu and Kashmir to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi.