Jamal's father files petition in Guj HC for Rs 50L

Father of Sadiq Jamal, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter by Ahmedabad police in 2003, has filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking compensation of Rs 50 lakh from the state government.
The court of Justice J B Pardiwala had on January 16 issued notice to the state government.
The government pleader today opposed the petition stating that the special CBI court hearing the encounter case is yet to decide whether it was fake, and hence the question of compensation does not arise at this stage.
The pleader told the court that CBI is conducting further probe into the matter and trial is going on.

Petitioner Jamal Mehtar in a special criminal application filed this month has sought the court's direction to the state government to provide him a compensation of Rs 50 lakh as his son was "killed" while in police custody.
Mehtar said the killing of his son while in police custody is violation of Article 21 of the Constitution (which says no persons shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law) by the state and he should be compensated for the same.

The petitioner also placed before the court a August 2009 Supreme Court asking the state government to pay compensation to the family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter.

Sadiq Jamal was killed in Ahmedabad on November 13, 2003, with the police claiming that he was a Laskar-e-Taiba terrorist on a mission to kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
In its charge sheet filed before a special court here in 2012, the CBI said that the encounter was staged as Jamal was brought to Ahmedabad from the custody of Mumbai police by police officials Tarun Barot and seven others.
The CBI has said that Jamal was killed in a "stage- managed" encounter while he was kept in an illegal confinement of city Detection of Crime Branch.