Ishrat case: CBI says it has no say in grant of sanction to prosecute police officials

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has no say in grant of sanction to prosecute retired police officials who are accused in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, the agency has told a court here.

The agency told special judge for CBI cases J K Pandya Saturday that it had not yet received sanction from the Gujarat government to prosecute retired police officials D G Vanzara and N K Amin.

When the court asked for the reason for the delay, CBI lawyer R C Kodekar said it had no say in the matter of grant of sanction by the state government.

The matter will be next heard on January 28.

While rejecting discharge applications of Vanzara and Amin in August 2018, the court had asked the CBI to inform if the state government had given sanction to prosecute them.

Vanzara, a former deputy inspector general of police, had sought discharge saying his case was similar to that of former Gujarat in-charge director general of police P P Pandey.

Pandey was discharged in the case in February last year for want of evidence.

Amin, who retired as superintendent of police, had sought discharge on the ground that the encounter was genuine and testimonies of witnesses produced by the CBI were not reliable.

Jahan, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana, and Zeeshan Johar were killed by the police in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The Gujarat police had then claimed that the four had links with terrorists and had plotted to kill then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The CBI, which probed the killing on the high court's order, claimed that it was a staged encounter.