The SIT, appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case, has in its complaint to CBI said, “There was no evidence to indicate that the teenager had any terrorist link". However, the SIT at the same time said the three others, who were killed along with Ishrat, might have terrorist links.
The SIT also said certain reports after the incident had indicated that David Headley, the terrorist arrested in the US, had revealed that Ishrat was part of a terror network, however, there is no evidence to substantiate it.
Ishrat Jahan, a college girl from Mumbra in Thane district in Maharashtra and three others, namely Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Gopinath Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Jeeshan Johar, were killed in an encounter with police on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004.
The Gujarat High Court had on December 1 directed CBI to take over further probe in the case after the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by it, had concluded last month that the encounter was staged by police.
The SIT had on Thursday filed a complaint with CBI as per the instructions of the court and Saturday CBI filed a fresh FIR against 20 Gujarat policemen based on the SIT's complaint.
As per the complaint, the investigation conducted so far by SIT in connection with Amjad Ali Rana and some terrorist outfits appears to be on the sound ground, while Javed Sheikh and Jeeshan Johar are also suspected to have connections with terrorist activities.
The SIT further said Ishrat had come to know Javed Sheikh for the first time on May 1, 2004, and she was working for him. She had traveled with Javed to Lucknow and Ibrahimpur, district Faizabad, in UP and both of them had visited Ahmedabad together twice.
The SIT complaint further said the statement of one witness Rashid indicates that she had knowledge about Javed's illegal activities before she joined him.
"However, there is no evidence to indicate that she had any terrorist link herself", the SIT complaint said.