CBI investigations into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case are now focusing on whether she and Javed Sheikh, alias Pranesh Pillai, were killed on instructions of top officials of Intelligence Bureau as the two were eyewitness to the surrender of Amjad Ali Rana who was killed in the same encounter.
Interestingly, the CBI suspects that Rana too was caught alive by IB sleuths on a tip-off from Javed Sheikh who in fact was acting as an informant of a senior IB official Highly-placed sources in the investigating agency claimed that since IB along with the Gujarat police had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Rana and Zeeshan Johar, both Pakistani nationals, they were fully aware of the fact that both Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh were witness to the fact that Rana had been caught alive in their presence.
It is possible, sources added, that Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh were killed as the intelligence agencies wanted to “cover their tracks” in the case. “As Javed was working as a source for some IB officials he played a key role in getting Rana caught. It is suspected that both Ishrat and Javed were present when intelligence officials caught Rana. Clearly the agencies did not want to take any chances by leaving an eyewitness alive,” a senior official remarked.
The CBI is probing the role of IB’s special director Rajender Kumar along with three other official, P. Mittal, M.K. Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede, in the fake encounter case.
Sources said the agency is likely to elaborate on their exact role in the supplementary chargesheet expected to be filed once Rajender Kumar retires by the end of July.
It is believed that the investigating agency has concrete evidence to suggest that Javed Sheikh in fact was working as a key informant or source for Rajender Kumar and played an important role in getting Rana into IB’s trap.
In fact, in her statement to the CBI, Javed Sheikh’s wife, Sajida, also revealed that Rana had stayed at their Mumbai house posing as one “Bunty” a few days before the encounter. She recognised Rana from a photograph shown by the CBI. Sajida claimed that Javed Sheikh had introduced Rana as his friend “Bunty”.