Pillai: Son was in Gujarat to meet cop
The father of one of the victims of the 2004 Ishrat Jahan “fake” encounter, on Tuesday said his son had come to Gujarat to meet a top police officer, disputing claims that he was on a terror mission.
“My son had come to Gujarat to meet a top state police official,” Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, told mediapersons here.
Javed and Ishrat, along with two others, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, were gunned down by Gujarat Police on June 15, 2004 on the charge that they were on a mission to eliminate chief minister Narendra Modi. CBI has claimed all the four were killed in a “fake” encounter.
Asked about purpose of the meeting, Mr Gopinath said “my son told me that he (the police officer) was a very good friend of his and he would help us establish our business.”
Mr Gopinath, who hails from Kerala while his son stayed in Pune, didn’t say anything about the officer’s identity. Asked if his son had worked as an “informer” for the police, Mr Gopinath replied in the negative but maintained Javed shared a “good relation” with the police.
He said he was upset with recent reports that CBI officers investigating the encounter were being threatened.
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