Ahmedabad, Jan. 28: A Gujarat-cadre police officer who is a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed to probe the encounter killing of Mumbai college-girl Ishrat Jahan has said in an affidavit filed before a division bench of the Gujarat high court that all early evidence in the case points to the 19-year-old girl and her three friends being shot dead in a fake encounter.
The Ishrat encounter, like other encounters in Gujarat, had a similar pattern. Ishrat was believed to have come on a suicide mission to kill the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi.
The Gujarat police intercepted her plans and killed her. This encounter was carried out by D.G. Vanzara, a Gujarat police encounter specialist who has over a dozen encounters to his credit. All these encounters involved “terrorists” aiming to kill Mr Modi. Vanzara is currently in Sabarmati jail for his role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing. But, a year-and-a-half before D.G. Vanzara killed Sohrabuddin, he had slain Ishrat and her three friends.