The CBI on Saturday registered a case against 20 policemen of Gujarat in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
According to sources, all 20 policemen have been charged with murder and destruction of evidence. The case has been registered by the CBI Mumbai unit (special crime). Ishrat Jahan and three others — Pranesh Pillai, a
lias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar — were gunned down by the Gujarat police crime branch near Kotarpur, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, on June 15, 2004.
“The FIR was registered by the CBI after the SIT probing the case submitted its complaint to the agency on December 15,” sources said. The SIT, constituted by the Gujarat high court last year, submitted its report last month in which it maintained that the encounter was staged by the Gujarat police.
Sources added, “The agency will probe the allegations that the Mumbai-based teenager and three others were killed in a fake encounter. Agency officials will also question some serving and retired Gujarat police officials in this regard.”