Investigations into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case has revealed that Gujarat cops, who earlier investigated the case, did not handle the evidence available on the crime scene properly.
Scrutiny of the videograph of the crime scene, where Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004, has revealed that state police officers present there were handling and changing the positions of important exhibits like “firearms”, sources said.
Sources in the agency said, “Due to this negligent behaviour of the Gujarat cops, important evidence collected from the crime scene could not be scientifically examined”. The agency will mention this in its supplementary chargesheet, likely to be filed by the end of this month, in the case, they added. Ishrat along with three others: Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Jishan Johar were killed in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
Besides, probe has also revealed glaring mistakes on the part of the Gujarat police as the state police officers did not even bother to send the weapons — used by the accused cops in the shootout — for forensic examinations for the initial five years after the incident. “Weapons, used by the Gujarat cops in the fake encounter, were sent for forensic examination only in 2009, almost five years after the shootout. Due to delay in sending weapons for forensic examinations, important evidence became unknown”. This will also mentioned by the CBI in its supplementary chargesheet, they added.
CBI sleuths during probe also found that several officers of the Crime Branch (Gujarat police), who were involved in the encounter, were later engaged in the investigation of the same case. “This was against the guidelines of the National Human Right Commission. There were several other inconsistencies in the investigation paper prepared initially by the IO”, sources said.