Ishrat Jahan case: Court concludes hearing on Amin’s discharge plea

Ahmedabad: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court hearing the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case on Wednesday concluded hearing in the discharge plea by former top cop of Gujarat Police N.K. Amin.

The special court had started hearing the Amin’s discharge plea last Saturday.

Amin, presenting his final submission before the court of special judge J.K. Pandya, said that the testimonies of the witnesses produced by the CBI in the case were “not reliable”, as some of them were earlier made accused in the case.

Maintaining that he did not fire from his gun, Amin said that Satish Verma, the Gujarat cadre IPS, who assisted the CBI in the investigation, had tampered with the evidence.

Amin was appearing in the court as party in person.

The CBI, has opposed the discharge pleas by Amin as well as from former top cop of Gujarat and retired DIG D.G. Vanzara.

Opposing the Amin’s plea, the CBI stated that it had ample proof to corroborate his presence at the spot of encounter.

The CBI charge-sheet states that Amin had fired five rounds from his 9mm pistol. It also stated in the court that there were witnesses who had seen Amin at the encounter site and that they also had forensic evidence that he had fired from his gun.

But Amin, now a practising lawyer after his retirement, claimed in his plea that he was not a part of the team involved in the shooting and that his involvement was not supported by with any forensic evidence.

On Wednesday, Amin once again equated his discharge plea with that of former in-charge DGP P.P. Pandey and sought parity with him, who was accused in the case but had his discharge petition allowed by the same court.

In June 2004, Mumbai-based 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others — her friend Javed alias Pranesh, along with two Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Johar and Amzad Ali Rana — were gunned down by a team of Vanzara’s men in an encounter in Ahmedabad in 2004.

It was claimed that Ishrat and her friends were terrorists who were in the state with an intent and plot to kill then Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The court is expected to announce its decision on the discharge plea next month.

IANS