Another Guj cop arrested in Ishrat encounter case

The CBI has arrested one more police officer in connection with the 2004 alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, officials of the agency said.
The CBI late last evening arrested police inspector, Special Operation Group (SOG), Gandhinagar, Bharat Patel in the case and he was produced today before the court, along with suspended DySP Tarun Barot, who was also arrested yesterday.
Patel, who was the police sub-inspector with Crime Branch, Ahmedabad in 2004, was called by CBI for questioning at Gandhinagar office.
Metropolitan Magistrate A U Jujaru today ordered them to be sent in CBI custody for 24 hours.

In his remand application, DySP CBI Special Crime Branch and the investigating officer of the case, G Kalaimani, prayed for 14-day custody.
"The accused persons are police officers who were present at the scene of crime and perpetrated the crime of conspiracy leading to murder and other offence," said CBI lawyer Abhishek Arora.

The CBI has alleged that Patel brought Amjadali Akbarali Rana, who was murdered on June 15, 2004 along with Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and Zeeshan Johar, to the scene of crime and placed him blind-folded on the road divider where he was killed and an AK-56 assault rifle was shown near his right hand.

"Patel knows the source of AK-56 and its ammunition, this needs to be discovered in the interest of investigation," Arora argued.
At the time of the alleged encounter, it was claimed by the police that four of those killed were a part of the conspiracy to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.