Ahmedabad: Setting aside the order of the lower court, Special CBI Sessions Court on Friday remanded senior police officers Girish Singhal and J G Parmar, arrested in connection with the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, to six days custody.
Following the hearing on Wednesday, the court today set aside the lower court`s order denying police remand of two officers but also rejected CBI`s demand for 14 days custody.
Parmar`s counsel, Sanjay Thakkar said, "The court granted six days police remand to strike balance between individual liberty of police officers and allowing CBI sufficient opportunity to interrogate the duo".
Singhal, the Superintendent of Police with the State Crime Records Bureau, was the first police officer to be arrested in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case by the CBI.
Later, the agency also arrested retired DSP J G Parmar, Mehsana DySP Tarun Barot, Special Operations Group (SOG) Police Inspector Bharat Patel and a commando with State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), Anaju Chaudhary.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate H S Khutwad had last week denied remand of Girish Singhal and J G Parmar to CBI.
The agency then moved the special court and filed a revision remand application seeking to set aside the order of the lower court.
CBI counsel Ejaz Khan argued that the time available for interrogation was short and further custodial interrogation was needed.
"There are certain aspects which are known only to the accused police officers and which can be found out from them only through detailed custodial interrogation," said Khan.
The court took into account the lack of time CBI had for personal interrogation of the accused and the serious nature of the offence while granting remand.
Mumbai-based 19-year-old girl Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an an encounter by Gujarat police on June 15, 2004. Police had argued that the four had planned to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
PTI
