Ishrat Jahan case: Gujarat High Court raps CBI over delay in filing chargesheet

By Dilip -
The Gujarat High Court today rapped the CBI for delay in filing its chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, asking it to ascertain the genuineness of the encounter instead of focusing on IB inputs and trying to figure out whether those killed were terrorists or not. "Prime facie, we find that instead of investigating the genuineness of the encounter, the CBI has focused more on the genuineness of the inputs provided by the IB," a division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari observed. "It seems that in past one month you were more interested in figuring out whether the killed persons were terrorists or not but the court is not concerned whether they were terrorists or normal human beings. In any case they should not have been liquidated," the court observed. "You have been assigned responsibility to ascertain whether they were killed in a genuine encounter or a fake one and whether they were in prior custody of Gujarat police or not," the court said.

Court asked CBI to explain why it failed to file the chargesheet within 90 days of the arrest of accused, to which CBI responded that it is very large case of conspiracy and investigation has led us from one point to another which has caused the delay. The delay in filing the chargesheet has resulted in five accused police officers including IPS G L Singhal securing bail. The CBI told the court that it will file the chargesheet in the case by first week of July.
But that could not satisfy the court which said that they have doubts that the probe agency would file the chargesheet even by second week of July.

The CBI, on the instruction of the High Court, had taken over the probe of the alleged fake encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a Crime Branch team led by DIG D G Vanzara.

The court also came down heavily on the state government for trying to put the CD on record (of alleged conservations between those killed in the encounter and their Pakistani handlers) and told them to submit the evidence before CBI. On behalf of Gujarat Government, Additional Advocate (AAG) General Tushar Mehta, while requesting the court to take the CD on record, claimed that it was a 'clinching' evidence showing the persons who were killed were terrorists and that the encounter was genuine.

"This CD, duly endorsed by the highest officer of IB, contains clinching evidence which shows that those who were killed were terrorists and they were killed in genuine encounter," Mehta claimed. However, the bench flatly refused to take the request from the state government and observed that, "this is not the right stage and right court to produce any kind of evidence in this case. If you consider it as important piece of evidence submit it to CBI or you can later produce it before the trial court. We are not entertaining it."

Meanwhile, taking note of some media reports that CBI director has decided to discontinue the services of Gujarat IPS officer Satish Verma who is assisting it in the case investigation on court orders, the bench asked CBI to clarify whether they need further services of Verma or not. On this, CBI lawyer Ejaz Khan made it clear that agency needs the services of Verma till the investigation concludes. After getting instructions from CBI he re-submitted that, "at least till the filing of charge sheet we will need his full time services and then his services may be availed whenever its needed."

This was supported by counsels representing Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar and Javed's father Gopinath Pillai. They urged the court to continue Verma's services on the grounds that investigation was at a crucial stage and Verma should be permitted to perform the responsibility he has been assigned to. Next hearing of the case is scheduled on June 18.

Ishrat Jahan case: CBI says it has evidence against IB officer
CBI director Ranjit Sinha Thursday claimed the agency has sufficient evidence against Intelligence Bureau special director Rajendra Kumar for his alleged involvement in the 2004 fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and four others. As reported by The Indian Express Thursday, the move by the CBI to name Kumar as an "accused" in the case has sparked a row with IB director S A Ibrahim even complaining to the PMO. On Thursday, home secretary R K Singh called the CBI director and IB director to discuss the controversy and defuse the situation. The agency said it will question Kumar on Tuesday and may not arrest him. "We have evidence against Kumar and the agency's proceedings are as per the law," Sinha said after the meeting. According to the CBI, Kumar, who was then a joint director in the IB, colluded with the then Gujarat DGP K R Kaushik and then joint commissioner P P Pandey to generate the IB input that led to the encounter and was also involved in planning it. The BJP said the CBI-IB dispute would hurt national security. "It has gone this far because Congress tried to misuse the IB for short-term political gains," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Ishrat case: HC tells Gujarat govt 'no licence to kill'
In a major embarrassment to the Modi government, the Gujarat high court on Friday told its counsel that no one has the right to kill people in fake gunfights even if they were terrorists, while pulling up the CBI for not filing chargesheet in time in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.A bench of justice Jayant Patel and justice Abhilasha Kumari said the delay in filing the chargesheet led to default bail of several policemen who had been arrested as accused in the case. The investigation agency was also rapped for spending most of its time "on checking the veracity of Intelligence Bureau inputs than focusing on investigation into the encounter". "What is it that has derailed the investigation? Why chargesheet was not filed on time? Do you have a soft approach toward some of the accused and strict approach toward others?" the court said.

Addressing the government counsel, additional advocate general Tushar Mehta, justice Patel said, "What is the role of the state? To defend the officers who killed four people even if they were terrorists or hardcore criminals. Nobody has the licence to kill people in fake encounters even if they are terrorists." "Why the state continues to oppose the CBI probe in the case? Why cooperation to the agency is not extended by the state authorities?" the court asked.

The court declined to allow Mehta to file an affidavit regarding a purported taped conversation between a Pakistan-based terrorist and one of the four persons killed by the Gunarat police in the encounter. "Whatever material you have, hand it over to the CBI which is investigating the case," the court directed Mehta. The CBI submitted that it wanted Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma to continue assisting in the probe till the chargesheet is filed in the case. The court will decide on the CBI plea on Tuesday.

On high court instructions, the CBI had taken over the probe of the killing of 19-year-old Ishrat, a college student from Mumbai, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 allegedly in a staged gunfight by a police team led by deputy inspector general of police DG Vanzara.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gujarat/Ishrat-case-HC-tells-Gujarat-govt-no-licence-to-kill/Article1-1076348.aspx

See also
Ishrat Jehan's mother appeals for justice // CBI Probe Nails IB Officer’s Role // Important interview with Shamima Kauser's lawyer Vrinda Grover





Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

By Dilip -
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights on Tuesday alleged that third degree torture methods were used by the Gurgaon Criminal Investigation Agency while interrogating workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant who are accused of involvement in the killing of an HR manager and the violent attack at the plant on July 18. The PUDR alleged that the Gurgaon CIA investigation “did not seem” to be directed at solving the crime or probing the involvement of the arrested workers in the incidents and crimes recorded in the FIR but instead was based on their involvement in trade union activities. Grave doubts  “The use of third degree torture in police custody, and the securing of arrestees’ signatures on blank papers by the police, gives rise to grave doubts regarding the ability of such an investigation in effectively identifying or arresting those guilty. The police and the State seem keener to reassure Maruti Suzuki Ltd. and ensure that production continues,” the ...
Read more

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

By Dilip -
According to Murakami, “1Q84” is just an amplification of one of his most popular short stories,   which (in its English version) is five pages long. “Basically, it’s the same,” he told me. “A boy meets a girl. They have separated and are looking for each other. It’s a simple story. I just made it long.” One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert..." read the story: http://www.youmightfindyourself.com/post/22131227...
Read more

Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'

By Dilip -
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves.  Albert Camus     La crise de l'homme : THE HUMAN CRISIS   (Text read by Viggo Mortensen on March 28 2016)   Ladies and Gentlemen: when I was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States of America, I felt some doubt and hesitation. I am really not old enough to give lectures, and I am more at ease with the process of thinking than I am making categorical statements... since I don't feel I have any claim on what is generally called the truth. I shared this reservation and was very politely told that my personal opinion didn't matter. What mattered was that I'd be able to offer some facts about France so that my listeners could form their own opinions. It was then suggested...
Read more

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

By Dilip -
Image
'Do you know', Napoleon once said to Fontanes, 'what astounds me most about the world?  The impotence of force to establish anything.  There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind.  In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind' Conquerors, you see, are sometimes melancholy.  They have to pay some price for so much vainglory. But what a hundred years ago was true of the sword is no longer true today of the tank. Conquerors have made progress, and the dismal silence of places without intelligence has been established for years at a time in a lacerated Europe. At the time of the hideous wars of Flanders, Dutch painters could still perhaps paint the cockerels in their farmyards. The Hundred Years War has likewise been forgotten, and yet the prayers of Silesian mystics still linger in some hearts. But today, things have changed; the painter and the monk have been drafted - we are one with the world.  The mind has lost that regal certai...
Read more

Etel Adnan - To Be In A Time Of War

By Dilip -
NB: Etel Adnan, writer, poet, artist and musician was born in 1925 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek from Smyrna, her father, a high ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus. This prose poem is the final chapter of her book  In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country .  Read more about her here  - DS To Be In A Time Of War To say nothing, do nothing, mark time, to bend, to straighten up, to blame oneself, to stand, to go toward the window, to change one’s mind in the process, to return to one’s chair, to stand again, to go to the bathroom, to close the door, to then open the door, to go to the kitchen, to not eat nor drink, to return to the table, to be bored, to take a few steps on the rug, to come close to the chimney, to look at it, to find it dull, to turn left until the main door, to come back to the room, to hesitate, to go on, just a bit, a trifle, to stop, to pull the right side of the curtain, then the other side, ...
Read more

After the Truth Shower

By Dilip -
Dear Readers Thank you for reading my blog for the past eleven years. (This is a link to the new one) During this time it has had nearly 1.7 million hits; and I have posted over 9500 posts covering a variety of themes. From July 11 to 19, 2022, my blog was withdrawn by the Blogger administration on account of what its machinery suspected to be 'Impersonation'. It took over a week and the efforts of several well-wishers to get it back online I thank them all for their kindness and goodwill  My blog has always been - and remains - non-commercial. I have used it for academic purposes; and to foster a culture of debate and informed commentary in civil society. Because it contains a large amount of material gathered and collated for over a decade, I cannot afford to lose its contents. I hope it will remain undisturbed now and function as an archive. However, I have decided to use a new blog on WordPress as a platform for my newest comments and posts The new blog is titled After the...
Read more

James Gilligan on Shame, Guilt and Violence

By Dilip -
Shame, Guilt, and Violence / James Gilligan During the past 35 years I have used prisons and prison mental hospitals as "laboratories" in which to investigate the causes and prevention of the various forms of violence and the relationships between these forms and to what I will call (with a nod to William James) "the varieties of moral experience." In the course of that work, I have been struck by the frequency with which I received the same answer when I asked prisoners, or mental patients, why they assaulted or even killed someone. Time after time, they would reply "because he disrespected me" or "he disrespected my visitor [or wife, mother, sister, girl-friend, daughter, etc.]." In fact, they used that phrase so often that they abbreviated it into the slang phrase, "He dis'ed me." Whenever people use a word so often that they abbreviate it, it is clearly central to their moral and emotional vocabulary. But even when they did n...
Read more