Jamal encounter: CBI hesitant to question Intel officers?

Official sources said during investigation, names of two senior officers in the Intelligence set-up have cropped up, one of whom allegedly provided the input of Jamal as the target of the encounter and the other monitored the developments from here.

The sources said CBI, which is probing the case, is hesitating in questioning these senior officers even though their roles have been described by accused Gujarat Police officials as crucial in planning this encounter.

The sources said the police officers, some of whom have been made accused in the case, are believed to have told the agency that it was the input from a senior officer of a central Intelligence agency which was transferred to crime branch which executed the allegedly fake encounter.

The agency had this week filed its first charge sheet in the case.

When contacted, CBI spokesperson said the investigation has been kept open.

According to sources in CBI and Gujarat government, the officers of the Intelligence agency are too senior and CBI is hesitating in questioning them.

Jamal was killed in an alleged fake police encounter on January 13, 2003 in Naroda, Gujarat. On the plea of his brother, Gujarat High Court entrusted CBI to probe the case in June, 2011 which had arrested five police officials so far.

"CBI investigation revealed that the deceased Sadik Jamal Mahetar was detained for a considerable period before being allegedly killed in a stage managed encounter by the then police officials of Crime Branch, Ahmedabad," the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.