In a fresh embarassment to the Narendra Modi government, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further proceedings in the Gujarat High Court relating to the alleged fake encounter killing of a teenaged girl Ishrat Jahan and three others, on suspicion of being terrorists, by the state police.
Lahore-based Ghazwa Times said, 'The veil of Ishrat Jahan, a woman activist of LeT, was removed by Indian police and her body was kept with other Mujahideens (terrorists) on the ground.'
The Gujarat high court on Friday took a strong view of the slow pace of the Central Bureau of Investigation's probe in Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case of 2004.
In a blow to the Narendra Modi government, the Gujarat high court-appointed Special Investigation Team on Monday concluded that the controversial police encounter with college girl Ishrat Jehan and three others was fake as they were killed prior to the incident. Following the finding by SIT, the high court will pass a final order on Wednesday whether to file a fresh first investigation report to include the murder charge.
"Whatever we have given in the affidavit is a fact available with the Home Ministry...we are not backtracking from the affidavit," Home Secretary G K Pillai told media-persons in New Delhi. However, he went on to add that "terrorists cannot be killed in cold blood", indicating that due process of law had to be followed.
Union Home minister Rajnath Singh asked Opposition parties if they were prepared to apologise to the nation for their "malicious campaign" against PM Modi over the killing of Ishrat Jehan.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday lodged a second chargesheet in the Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case against former Intelligence Bureau special director Rajinder Kumar and three officers.
The family and the lawyer of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat, on Thursday raised questions over David Coleman Headley's testimony that she was a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, saying this was for the "political benefit of some big people" whose names have been "besmirched."
What Headley's testimony does achieve is expose the Congress' ham-fisted attempts to taint an otherwise credible probe. That, however, does not become an assertion of Ishrat's membership of the LeT.
The damage done to India's intelligence agencies and its ability to undertake covert operations is irreparable, says senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley
The lessons from the Ishrat Jehan episode should be about providing a remedy in the process of law enforcement so fake encounters are prevented, and to remedy the process of justice so that officers of law are held accountable for their illegal actions.
Vanzara, a former "encounter specialist", was acquitted in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati and discharged in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.
To a question, Headley further clarified that he had informed the NIA that 'this woman (Jahan) was an Indian and an LeT operative' but could not explain why this was not recorded in his statement.
'I do hope the Patel family sues the hell out of the state of Alabama, and I hope the Hindu American Foundation and other community organisations are helping with legal aid and monetary support. For, there is reason to believe that it is religious and racial bias that led to the incident: In other words, a hate crime. There is no reason to suffer that silently.'
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