Vanzara's plea in Ishrat case: Order likely on April 29

A special court here is likely to pass an order on April 29 on the applications of former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin seeking quashing of proceedings against them in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The arguments by the lawyers of the two officers and advocate Vrinda Grover who appeared for Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser concluded Tuesday before special judge for CBI cases J K Pandya.

Kauser has opposed the applications. The Gujarat government has denied sanction for the prosecution of Vanzara and Amin.

In a written submission, Kauser said it was the Union Home Ministry and not the state of Gujarat which was the appropriate sanctioning authority in this case.

Further, the state's orders denying the sanction to prosecute the two officers were invalid because the two orders were identical even when the "criminal roles and actions" attributed to them were distinct, she said.

Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, under which government's sanction is needed to prosecute public servants, would not apply here as the case is of "abduction, confinement and murder", which cannot fall in the purview of "official duty" of public servants, Kauser's plea said.

"The material on record shows there was no encounter ....a fake encounter was staged," it said.

To this, Vanzara's lawyer V D Gajjar said the court cannot determine the validity of a sanction (or its denial).

"Judicial findings" had established that there was no "fake encounter", and the sanction for prosecution was denied after the state government examined all evidence, he said.

Vanzara, a former IPS officer, and Amin, who recently retired as a superintendent of police, moved the court seeking that the proceedings against them be dropped, after the CBI informed that the state had not given its sanction to prosecute them.

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

While police claimed that they had links with terrorists, a special investigation team appointed by the high court held that it was a fake encounter.

The CBI has named several police officers, including Vanzara and Amin, in its charge sheet.