Ahmedabad: The special CBI court hearing the Ishrat Jahan Encounter case today allowed Ishrat’s mother to be a party in the case.

Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kauser had moved to the court of special CBI judge M K Pandya here on January 12.

She had requested the court to join the matter as a party as whe was both a victim and a witness in the case. Her lawyer has also sought the copy of the discharge application of DGP P P Pandey, an accused in the case pertaining to alleged controversial encounter of 19 year old Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Seikh and two Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The police had claimed that all the four were related to terror organization Laskher e Taiaba and had come here with a plot to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi. CBI later disputed the claim of the Gujarat police. .
Pandey, along with IPS officer G L Singhal, DSP N K Amin, retired IPS D G Vanzara, Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot and two other policemen were chargesheeted by CBI for conspiracy, murder and kidnapping claiming it be a staged encounter. The second chargesheet in the case against four IB officials is still pending in the court. Pandey, who was last one to be arrested in the case in July 2013 remained in jail for 19 months before being granted bail by the CBI court in February 2015. He was reinstated in the police department and given a promotion. After former DGP P C Thakur was transferred from the post, Pandey was given charge of his office.

Pandey has sought discharge from the case with the argument that the CBI chargesheet does not reveal any role played by him and also sanction for prosecution has not been granted by the government in this case.

DeshGujarat