Saturday, December 17, 2011

FIR registered against 20 policemen in Ishrat Jahan case

The CBI today registered a case against 20 policemen in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case in Gujarat.

The fresh FIR was registered by the probe agency after the Special Investigation Team, probing the case, gave its complaint to the CBI on December 15.

All the 20 policemen have been charged with murder and destruction of evidence, a senior CBI officer said.

The Gujarat High Court had on December 1 directed the CBI to take over further probe in the case in which 19-year-old Ishrat, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter in Ahmedabad.

The directives came as the Special Investigative Team constituted by the High Court had concluded last month that the encounter was staged by police.

A judicial inquiry report by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang report had alleged that 21 police officers, including then crime branch chief JCP PP Pande, suspended DIG DG Vanzara, the then ACP GL Singhal and ACP NK Amin were involved in the conspiracy regarding the encounter.

Vanzara and Amin are also accused in the fake encounter killing of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and in the murder of his wife Kausar Bi and are at present in jail.

The High Court had ordered CBI to also probe the claims made by the state police after the encounter that Ishrat and the other three persons were LeT terrorists on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

ndian media's muted response to Ishrat Jahan's case

FRIDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2011 12:12 INAM-UL-REHMAN

"Almost two weeks after the encounter that claimed Ishrat's life, along with those of Pune resident Javed Sheikh and two Pakistani nationals," wrote India's respected English newspaper, 'The Hindu on June 27, 2004', "it is still unclear just what motivated the young college student to join the ranks of the Lashkar."

The reporter, considered close to privy sources of intelligence and police, wrote further in his report: "That she did so, in at least some peripheral form, seems probable. Evidence has emerged that Ishrat maintained telephone contact with Javed, and that codenames entered in her diary match those in a separate register maintained by her associate" (Praveen Swami: 'Lashkar fishes in troubled waters' The Hindu, June 27, 2004).

That the story was concocted and canards spread were finally shown in two investigations done.

On 21 November 2011, the Special Investigation Team, constituted by the Gujarat High Court, probing the 2004 Ishrat Jehan murder case, concluded that the college girl was killed in a fake encounter.

Prior to this report, a judicial inquiry by metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang also concluded the same in his report submitted on 7 September 2009.

Her mother, Shamina, from the beginning asserted that Ishrat was murdered in a fake encounter by the Detention of Crime Branch, of Ahmadabad police in June, 2004. Following this, the Court ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

The story

On 15 June 2004, Ishrat and three others — Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani — were gunned down by the Gujarat police who claimed they were linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit and were planning to 'kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi'. The team was led by then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dhananjay Vanzara, currently in jail for involvement in the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

"Little was known about the duo as no one claimed their bodies. But Monday's order established they were Indians, not Pakistanis as the Gujarat cops had claimed." (TOI, Murdered In Cold Blood, 8 Sept 2009)

"The 2004 police encounter in which Mumbra college girl Ishrat Jahan and three others were gunned down in Ahmedabad was fake and executed in cold blood," noted the judicial probe in its report on September 7, 2009. The panel was appointed by the Gujarat HC to investigate the encounter. The then Home Secretary of India, G K Pillai had stated that Ishrat was working in the sleeper module of LeT.

However, Magistrate S P Tamang, conducting the probe, said the four victims had no links to Lashkar. The report said the encounter was "planned" and executed "mercilessly" — the victims were shot from a "close range". The judicial probe has stated that the senior police officers, including the then City Police Commissioner, K R Kaushik, planned the encounter to impress Modi, get promotion and secure their positions.

How Indian media covered it then

The media in India, which claims itself free from the partisan view, at that time gleefully accepted the police version. No one from the media questioned that out of supposed 42 bullets fired by the "terrorists": Why no policemen were injured. Why no bullet holes were found in the police jeep. "No bullet marks or damages were observed on the road or the divider," noted the People's Union for Civil Liberties in its report. The media even remained silent why didn't the "terrorists" tried to run?

"While members of the group," wrote Mr Swami, who is considered close to privy sources of intelligence and police, in the sister publication of The Hindu, 'Frontline' a weekly newsmagazine, "did indeed plan a suicide-squad attack on Hindu fundamentalist leaders, the mission was monitored by Indian intelligence at each stage, and infiltrated from its outset. It was an intelligence coup: a fiction conceived by an Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) mole in the Lashkar, and authored by his handlers." (The wages of hate", July 03 – 16).

In the first report, he said that the assassinators were planning to kill only Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, however, in this news report he changed the tone.

The same writer two years later again changed his stance. On 2 June 2006, 'The Hindu' carried a news report by the same writer, "Terror strike on RSS headquarters foiled" in which he goes on to add that the same four members were actually, "Seeking to assassinate the former Union Home Minister, L K Advani, and bomb the Bombay Stock Exchange."

Two years further the same newsman in the daily 'The Hindu' wrote: "In June 2004, the LeT despatched two Pakistani nationals from Jammu and Kashmir to execute a fidayeen attack in Gujarat. Jishan Johar of Gujranwala in Pakistan and Amjad Ali Rana, who hailed form Sargodha, were killed in a along with SIMI activist Javed Sheikh and his friend, Ishrat Jehan Raza" (Ahmedabad blasts: the usual suspects 01 August 2008). Throughout these seven years, the media verdict was against the slain four people. Unnamed sources were used in the stories. The so-called analytical stories on them were not without bias or deliberate distortions. The Indian media blindly followed the State narrative and didn't questioned the police version.

Muted response to SIT report

Now as the SIT report came out the Indian media didn't give it much coverage. The prime news gathering agency of India, PTI, in his 21 November report, while describing the finding of  SIT termed it as 'setback' to Gujarat government! The premier satellite English news channel of India—NDTV was busy inviting 'The Dirty Picture' actor for various shows. Even, Editor, Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta in his 'Walk the Talk' show shoed away the Ishrat Jahan topic and got showy with the producer of 'The Dirty Picture'.

There generally was muted response in print media. The daily English newspaper, 'The Hindu' published a banal editorially on Nov 24. Unlike the sustained reportage in the same newspaper by a particular reporter to tarnish the image of 19-year-old lady, the Hindu's editorial was spineless. It took 'Indian Express' nearly two weeks to realise that SIT report is out and what did it came up with? A cautious editorial on the same report on Dec 03.

In the teenage Arushi murder case the Indian media didn't buy the police version and in fact started parallel investigations. Same happened with the model Jessica Lal case. Both Arushi and Jessica had two things going for them: Both belonged to majority community and came from upper middle class family. Ishrat had no such tag and like millions of Indian Muslims, was vulnerable.

No newsmen thought it fit to question police verdict.  The orphan daughter ran tuition classes and undertook embroidery jobs in Mumbra to support the family income. How would a girl, who migrated from Bihar to Mumbai and was busy with many jobs throughout the day, find time to be a member of LeT? The Indian media even choose to remain silent on how Indian citizens were passed as Pakistani nationals. In fact the Indian media had delivered their verdict against Ishrat and the other three. Her fault was that she didn't belong to 'shining' middle class of India. Worse, she was Muslim who was aspiring to shine in the 'rising India'. The Muslims cannot do that. They got to die in gutters. A population of 200 million Muslims in India is a dangerous sign. Half a century ago, much less then in numbers, these four worded Muslims partitioned India. They are a nation and they must be oppressed so much that they loath themselves why they were born in India. After all, the majority community of India in 1990s coined the slogan: Babar ki santan: jao Pakistan ya Kabristan.

(Inam-ul-Rehman is a journalist based in Kashmir)

http://www.kashmirdispatch.com/others/16127367-kashmir-indian-medias-muted-response-to-ishrat-jahans-case.htm

Ishrat Jahan case: Who killed whom & where? Puzzle for CBI

Who killed Ishrat Jahan and three others and where, will be the main focus of the CBI's investigation of the case.

Sources connected to the case said that the central probe agency will have to find out which policemen of the Ahmedabad crime branch had taken part in the fake encounter, exactly what had been their respective roles, and where the four victims were killed.

As in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, the CBI does not have to find out whether the Ishrat encounter was genuine or not, the sources said.

The Gujarat high court-appointed SIT headed by IPS officer RR Verma has already established that the encounter was staged.

"Now the CBI has to find out where the four were killed and who actually did the ghastly work," the sources said.

"According to scientific evidence, the four were killed 7-8 hours before the time of encounter claimed by the DCB sleuths. Therefore, the CBI has to find out who killed whom, where and in what manner,"sources said.

The CBI may also try to find out whether Ishrat, Javed and the two alleged Pakistan nationals were terrorists or not.

Crime branch had claimed after the encounter in 2004 that the four were terrorists of LeT on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.

Full coverage

Ishrat Jahan case: CBI files FIR against 20 Gujarat cops

NewsX - ‎1 hour ago‎
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case with the CBI's Mumbai Special Crime Unit on Saturday. Three days ago, the CBI had received the official complaint from the Special Investigation Team ...

Fertile minds concocted Ishrat story

Times of India - ‎9 hours ago‎
AHMEDABAD: What was the explosive yellow powder seized from Ishrat Jahan and three others allegedly sent to blow up chief minister Narendra Modi in a suicide attack? The investigation carried out by the special investigation team (SIT) probing the fake ...

Ishrat SIT files complaint with CBI; senior cops named

Daily News & Analysis - ‎19 hours ago‎
Chairman of the Gujarat high court-appointed SIT, RR Verma, submitted a complaint in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case on Thursday to a joint director of the CBI at the probe agency's Delhi office, along with a 20-page report. ...

Ishrat Jahan case: Who killed whom & where? Puzzle for CBI

Daily News & Analysis - ‎20 hours ago‎
Who killed Ishrat Jahan and three others and where, will be the main focus of the CBI's investigation of the case. Sources connected to the case said that the central probe agency will have to find out which policemen of the Ahmedabad crime branch had ...

Ishrat Jahan case: Anticipatory bail is cops only hope...

Daily News & Analysis - ‎21 hours ago‎
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA The Ahmedabad crime branch policemen who were involved in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case are in serious trouble now. The chairman of the special investigation team (SIT) appointed by the ...

Ishrat encounter: SIT submits its complaint with CBI

Indian Express - ‎Dec 15, 2011‎
Delhi-based IPS officer RR Verma and chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which probed the Ishrat Jahan encounter, today lodged a complaint in the CBI (Central Bureau of investigation) headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday, declaring the ...

SIT files fresh FIR in Ishrat case

Times of India - ‎Dec 15, 2011‎
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court-appointed special investigation team filed a fresh FIR in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case before CBI director AP Singh on Thursday. This has paved the way for another round of investigations by the central agency. ...

FIR unveils lapses in Gujarat police probe

Times of India - ‎Dec 15, 2011‎
AHMEDABAD: The initial investigation done by Gujarat police in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case has come under cloud. The fresh FIR filed by Special Investigation Team (SIT) to Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) says there are serious lapses ...

CBI set to file fresh FIR in Ishrat case

Khaleej Times - ‎Dec 15, 2011‎
AHMEDABAD — The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case has given its complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The handing over of the relevant documents to the CBI in New Delhi on Thursday has ...

SIT lodges, CBI to file FIR in Ishrat case

Hindustan Times - ‎Dec 15, 2011‎
The special investigation team (SIT) that probed the fake encounter death of Ishrat Jahan and three others on Thursday lodged with the CBI a complaint on the basis of which the agency will register a fresh FIR on Friday. The SIT had told the court in ...
All 21 related articles »

Timeline of articles

Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this story
CBI registers FIR in Ishrat Jahan encounter case
‎2 hours ago‎ - IBNLive.com
SIT files fresh FIR in Ishrat case
‎Dec 15, 2011‎ - Times of India

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