The sources said the agency has also found during its probe that the FIR of the encounter, in which four persons were killed on June 15, 2004, was prepared before the encounter took place by the Gujarat Police. Contrary to various theories on the reasons why Ishrat chose to accompany Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai on his trip to Gujarat where they were killed, CBI sources said she was an employee of Sheikh who had helped her family during a crisis.
The sources said Sheikh was an employee of Ishrat's father and was known to their family for quite a long time. Sheikh later established his own business in Mumbai and was doing well. They said after the death of Ishrat's father, family was in dire need of money and for the sake of goodwill, Sheikh gave her employment in his business. CBI found in its investigation that Ishrat accompanied Sheikh on his trip to Ahmedabad where they were allegedly picked by officials of subsidiary intelligence bureau, state unit of country's snooping agency Intelligence Bureau, and Gujarat Crime Branch officials.
The sources said Ishrat and Javed were allegedly picked up from Vasad in Gujarat three-four days before the fake encounter and kept at a farmhouse in the illegal custody of SIB and Gujarat Crime Branch officials. They said Rana was allegedly intercepted by the SIB and Gujarat Police officials in May, nearly a month before the fake encounter, while Johar was allegedly picked up in April, nearly two months before the encounter.
The sources said the then SIB Chief Rajinder Kumar, now Special Director Intelligence Bureau, ADGP Gujarat Police P P Pandey, who is absconding, and the then DIG Crime branch D G Vanzara, who is under judicial custody, held a meeting at Vanzara's office in Ahmedabad where it was decided to kill Sheikh, Johar, and Rana. The sources said, however, there was a difference of opinion about the fate of Ishrat during the meeting. On the day of encounter, June 15, 2004, a Gujarat police official allegedly drove Sheikh, Ishrat and Johar in the Blue Indica car, owned by Sheikh, from the farmhouse where they were kept in illegal custody to the location of encounter on an empty stretch of road between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Rana was brought in a different car to the location and all four were killed by Gujarat crime branch officials in a staged encounter, CBI claimed in its charge sheet filed today. The sources said role of Kumar, the then SIB Chief, and two other officials of the IB is under the scanner of the agency and they are likely to be named as accused in the supplementary charge sheet to be filed by the agency.
The sources said the agency's probe is based on material evidence collected by it, voluminous call records and statements of at least 20 witnesses who have recorded their accounts before a competent Magistrate. None of the seven policemen who have been made accused in the charge sheet today have given their statements before the Magistrate under Section 164.
19-year-old college student Ishrat Jahan was killed on June 15, 2004 along with three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The Gujarat Police said that the group was armed and on its way to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Today, the CBI has said that's incorrect, and that Ishrat and the others were killed in cold blood in a joint operation between the state's police and the Intelligence Bureau (or IB). However, the agency has not attributed any motive to the killing. The four people killed were Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan JoharThe core of the CBI's case is based on the testimony of about 20 junior policemen who have helped establish that the four people who were killed were abducted and illegally confined at three different farm-houses in and around Ahmedabad over a period of two months. This is how the encounter unfolded, according to the CBI: The junior policemen have testified that the man known as Zeeshan had been brought into Ahmedabad as early on 27th April, 48 days before the encounter and was watched over in the police closely.
Amjad was driven to Ahmedabad by Ishrat's friend, Javed, on May 27, and kept at another farm-house on the outskirts of Ahmedabad by the Gujarat Police. There are different unconfirmed theories about why Javed handed over Amjad to the police. Javed and Ishrat , headed towards Ahmedabad in a blue Indica from Nasik in Maharashtra, were picked up by the police at a check post in Vasad near Anand, on June 12 and taken to a third farmhouse. On June 13, the Gujarat station chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Rajinder Kumar, interrogated Ishrat at the farmhouse where she was being kept illegally. On June 14, Mr Kumar allegedly met with senior police officers DG Vanzara and PP Pandey and the plan for the shooting was finalized. On June 14, a police officer was deputed to collect weapons from the Intelligence Bureau office. These included an AK-56 which were planted at the site of the shooting to make it seem like Ishrat and the others were armed.
On the morning of June 15, a police officer drove all four of them in Javed's Indica to the Kotarpur Waterworks road where they were gunned down by a group of policemen now accused of murder and destruction of evidence.
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