The Central Bureau of Investigation has announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone providing information on Zishan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, the two persons who were killed in an encounter along with Ishrat Jahan in June 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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is taking legal opinion on the tapped phone conversations of ministers and high-ranking officials in which they were purportedly discussed ways to save the police officials booked in Ishrat fake encounter killing case.
The probe in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case has drawn clear battle lines between the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Bureau after the CBI named IB official Rajinder Singh in its charge-sheet.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, probing the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others, has filed an application in the special court in Ahmedabad to declare absconding accused IPS officer P P Pandey as a 'proclaimed offender'.
Anaju Chaudhary, the fifth accused policeman in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, was granted bail on Wednesday by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad after the central probe agency failed to file its chargesheet within the stipulated period of 90 days following his arrest.
According to the CBI charge-sheet in the encounter case, which leaves out some important questions, five Gujarat cops fired 70 rounds on the four persons they branded as terrorists. Sheela Bhatt presents a summary of the CBI charge-sheet of the "extra-judicial" killings that are haunting the Gujarat government.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday gave a clean chit to former Gujarat Home Minister and Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others, saying it did not have sufficient evidence to charge sheet him.
R R Verma on Thursday took charge as the fourth chief of the Special Investigation Team probing the Ishrat Jahan police encounter case at the agency's office in Shahibaug area in Ahemedabad.
The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday appointed Rajiv Ranjan Verma, a Bihar cadre Indian Police Service officer, as the fourth chief of the Special Investigation Team probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter, while coming down heavily on the Centre for adopting a "causal approach" in the case.
A local court on Wednesday remanded suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara in CBI custody till June 10 in the Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case.
A local court on Monday extended the custody of two police officers, Tarun Barot and Bharat Patel, arrested on Saturday by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan, for three more days.
Targeting Narendra Modi over the alleged fake encounter of Mumbra resident Ishrat Jahan in 2004, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in Thane that the chief minister and the Gujarat police had killed an innocent college girl by branding her as a terrorist.
In what could be a setback to the probe into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police Satyapal Singh, asked to head the Special Investigation Team formed by Gujarat high court, has requested that he be exempted from the responsibility.
Prasad, a 1983 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, was due to retire on May 31. The government has recently appointed Maharashtra cadre IAS officer Bipin Bihari Mallick as his replacement.
N K Amin, suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police, who got bail from Bombay High Court last month in Sohrabuddin encounter case on medical grounds, was arrested by the CBI from the CivilHospital in Ahmedabad.
The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Gujarat government from entrusting the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to the Special Investigation Team headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan which is probing the post-Godhra communal riots in the state
With the Central Bureau of Investigation holding as "fake" the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat, the Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi saying "truth speaks for itself from the rooftop" and claimed that the chief minister's role in such encounters will also be exposed.
The Gujarat high court on Friday expressed satisfaction about the progress made by Central Bureau of Investigation in the investigation of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, and ordered it to submit the next progress report by May 9.
Suspended IPS officers D G Vanzara and PP Pandey were on Thursday granted bail by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad in the 2004 case of fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and 3 others after remaining in jail for 18 months.
A suspended IPS officer accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case sought default bail on Thursday from the special court here, after the CBI which is investigating the case, failed to file a chargesheet within 90 days of his arrest.
The Gujarat high court on Friday constituted a new special investigations team comprising three Indian Police Services officers to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing "all angles" in the Ishrat Jahan case including the statements of some witnesses claiming knowledge of political conspiracy behind the fake encounter involving the Gujarat Police and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau.
The Gujarat government on Monday informed the high court that they have issued a notification for the formation of a new Special Investigation Team to probe the encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others. A division bench of Justices A M Kapadia and B N Mehta, after the submission of the government pleader, disposed of the contempt of court petition filed by one Gopinath Pillai.
The Gujarat government on Monday opposed CBI probe into the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, in the Gujarat High Court.
The home ministry is not convinced that the Central Bureau of Investigation has evidence to arrest or prosecute a top Intelligence Bureau officer in the conspiracy to carry out the fake encounter in which Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in Gujarat nine years ago.
The Gujarat government on Thursday filed an affidavit in the Gujarat high court questioning the keenness of Central government for a CBI probe on Ishrat Jahan and three others encounter.
The CBI has sent a clarification to the HM reiterating its position that there was ample evidence to prosecute ex-IB man.
No one listened to us when we had said it in 2004. But now that the truth has been exposed with the fake encounter case , we hope that proper investigations will be conducted in the matter and justice will be done'
Gujarat Crime Branch officials had fired 70 rounds using their automatic and semi-automatic weapons at Ishrat Jahan and three others during the alleged fake encounter nine years ago.
Family members of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed allegedly in an encounter by the Gujarat police, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the state high court's order staying a magisterial inquiry report, which had described the incident as a fake encounter.The Gujarat High Court on September 9 had stayed Metropolitan Magistrate S P Tamang's report, on the plea of the state government.
The petition of Gopinath Pillai, father of one of the four persons killed in 2004 police encounter, was transferred to the judge hearing the Ishrat Jahan case, by the Gujarat High Court on Thursday.
In response to a petion filed by Superintendent of Police G L Singhal, theGujarat High Court has stayed the magisterial inquiry report on encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
The Supreme Court on Monday extendend its stay on all further proceedings in Gujarat High Court relating to the killing of teenager girl Ishrat Jahan and three others in an allegedly fake encounter with the state police.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah may not figure as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet which is likely to be filed soon by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
BJP leaders in Gujarat feel that though Narendra Modi and the party will fight the allegations politically, there is no denying that the legal fight will have some political price attached to it. Sheela Bhatt reports
The Central Bureau of Investigation's charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan case, filed on Wednesday, claims that the college student and three others were in the custody of the Gujarat police prior to their killing in a fake encounter. But the charge sheet did not name state Chief Minister Narendra Modi and former minister Amit Shah as accused.
The apex court also issued notice to the Centre on Jahan's mother, Shamima Kaushar's plea seeking vacation of the Gujarat High Court order granting stay on the report of Judicial Magistrate S P Tamang.
"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.
The Gujarat government on Tuesday rejected the S P Tamang report which concluded that Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in a fake encounter in 2004 and said it would challenge it in a higher court.