Ahmedabad: CBI on Friday formally took over
investigation into the 2004 fake encounter death of Mumbai
college girl Ishrat Jahan and three others, following
directions from the Gujarat High Court.
A team of CBI officials headed by IG V V Laxminarayan,
who heads the Hyderabad Zone of the agency, was handed over
the case papers and other documents related to the case here
by officials of the high court-appointed Special Investigation
Team (SIT), which has termed the police encounter as "fake".
Investigating officer for the case G Kalaimani, who holds
the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), DIG Arun
Bothra from the CBI Special Crime Zone (II) besides lower rank
officials were present on the occasion.
According to SIT officials, they handed over case papers,
evidences, original statements along with English translations
to the agency.
The CBI, for the time being, would be operating from the
office alloted to them in Gandhinagar old secretariat campus.
It was given this office after it took over in 2010 the
investigation into the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter
case.
On December 1 last year, the high court handed over to
the CBI further probe into the incident on June 15, 2004 when
Ishrat (19) and Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali
Rana and Zeeshan Johar were shot dead by an Ahmedabad Crime
Branch team.
Investigation by SIT, which was set up to ascertain
genuineness of the police action, had concluded that it was a
staged killing and death of the four had taken place before
the encounter.
PTI
