Ishrat case: IPS officer Singhal, 3 others file discharge pleas

Gujarat IPS officer Girish Singhal and three others moved a special CBI court here on Friday seeking discharge from the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The state government had not given sanction to prosecute them in the case, they contended.

The applications were filed by Singhal, Tarun Barot, Anaju Chaudhary and J G Parmar.

Judge R K Chudawala directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file its reply by September 21.

The pleas were filed three months after the court discharged former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin on the ground that the state government had not given sanction for their prosecution, which is mandatory under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Before that, the court had discharged former IPS officer P P Pandey.

Singhal is currently posted as Inspector General of the Commando Training Centre in Gandhinagar while Chaudhary is a commando with the State Reserve Police. Barot and Parmar have retired.

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

The police had claimed they were terrorists who were planning to kill the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The CBI, which probed the case on the high court's order, said it was a fake encounter.