A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court last month discharged GL Singhal, Tarun Barot, and ASI Anaju Chaudhary – the last of the three police officers who faced charges in the alleged fake encounter case of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three men.
Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai, and two alleged Pakistani men, Jishan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, were gunned down at dawn on 15 June 2004 by the crime branch of the Ahmedabad Police, led by the then Deputy Commissioner of Police DG Vanzara, who is now retired.
It has been 17 years since 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan was killed, and her controversial death has made headlines ever since. Several doubts regarding her death and the encounter have been raised multiple times, from different investigating agencies.
But with charges dropped against the seven policemen, one of them now dead, who were accused of murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, and several other offences in the case, this may be the end of the road for the alleged fake encounter case.
Who was Jahan and why was her encounter controversial? As I try and answer these questions in today’s episode, I will narrate the facts and figures of the case, what the probe by the CBI revealed, and where does it stand at the moment.
In this episode, you will hear from Kingshuk Nag, who is a senior journalist and was the resident editor of the Ahmedabad edition of the The Times of India when the incident took place.
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