Summing up Ishrat Jehan case

Since the CBI had filed their first charge-sheet in the infamous Ishrat Jehan encounter case on the 4th July, I think, a revisit to the issue is in order.

The Congress had already decided on the first day itself that the encounter was fake when one of their elected leaders of Maharashtra went to Ishrat’s house in Thane near Mumbai, affirmed of his solidarity and that of his party and declared that (since the encounter had taken place in Gujarat state), it was only a “fake” encounter. The firebrand CPI(M) leader, Brinda Karat did not lag behind and declared from the rooftop that the encounter was “fake”. This was at a time when not a single investigation had even been initiated. All Modi’s detractors had passed the verdict that it was fake and thereafter it was a diabolic conspiracy to prove that the encounter was “fake”.

The very next day, Mumbai Police said that all those who were killed were indeed LeT activists who were planning bomb blasts in various parts of the country, their main target being the Gujarat Chief Minister. The LeT headquarters in Pakistan also confirmed they were LeT activists. Later, by 2007, about 3 years after the encounter, when they saw that their operatives were getting tremendous support from the Government of India and other “secular” brigades, the LeT’s mouth piece came up with a denial of their earlier statement. .

By 2009, they had roped in Mr. Tamang who submitted a report to the Gujarat HC that Ishrat Jehan, Javed Shaik, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were innocent people and that the encounter was “fake”. When the Gujarat government cited the IB affidavit submitted to the Gujarart HC, which said that they were all terrorists, the then Union Home Minister who was in Washington at that time, ordered IB under his ministry to submit a revised affidavit and they did so. But, even in that revised affidavit, the IB did not backtrack on their earlier statement that Ishrat and her companions were indeed LeT terrorists.

Later, the NIA had come out with a statement that David Coleman Headley, in his confession had confirmed Ishrat and her 3 co-travelers’ LeT links and their plans to execute bomb blasts and kill Modi. But, the NIA later deleted this part of Headley’s confession presumably under pressure from the Union Home Minister, Chodambaram.

The CBI had ignored all the above factors during their “investigation” . Recently, CBI themselves had confirmed that the Maharashtra and J&K police too knew about LeT links of the four. According to some recent “leaks” by CBI themselves, the two companions of Ishrat and Javed, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were Kashmiri separatists of Pakistani origin. However, the CBI, in their fresh charge sheet has not included the J&K and Maharashtra police personnel for obvious reasons. The present affidavit filed by the CBI is based on some “confessions” obtained from some accused police officers who were blackmailed or induced into filing them according to the CBI diktat lest they should rot in jail.

The CBI is silent about any possible ulterior motive on the part of the IB officers to selectively name these four people terrorists nor do they have any idea what motive Modi, Amit Shah or the Gujarat Police had against these people to “order” them killed as they are desperately trying to prove. However, it is heartening to see that the IB has stood firm on their ground and refused to toe the Congress line. Now, it is to be seen if the CJ of Gujarat HC, Abhilasha Kumari who is the daughter of Congress leader Vir Bhadra Singh would toe the Congress line or whether she would uphold the dignity and sanctity of her position by upholding the strict jurisprudence.

Now, the question is, should the Gujarat Police have waited for at least one of their persons got killed by the terrorists’ bullets before firing at them.

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