'Explosives found on deceased not explosive'

The CBI findings in the June 2004 Ahmedabad encounter have revealed 17 kilogram of yellow explosives allegedly recovered from the four deceased by accused police officials was not explosive chemical at all. Abhishek Sharan reports.

The CBI findings in the June 2004 Ahmedabad encounter have revealed 17 kilogram of yellow explosives allegedly recovered from the four deceased by accused police officials was not explosive chemical at all.

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According to Ahmedabad Crime Branch records, the explosives kept in a gunny bag was allegedly seized from the boot of a blue Indica car used by two of the four deceased to travel to Ahmedabad. "A forensic analysis on the alleged explosive material seized from the Indica was done at the Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhinagar," said a CBI source.

"The deputy chief controller of explosives, Vadodara, said that the subject chemical mixture is not explosive. The yellow powder was planted on them as explosives," said the source.

According to CBI's case charge sheet, the encounter on June 15, 2004 was allegedly fake and the four deceased —Jishan Johar, Amjad Ali, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and Ishrat Jahan — were killed in cold blood. The charge sheet says the accused had allegedly planted an AK 56 and two pistols on the deceased.

The charge sheet said both Johar and Ali were picked up in Ahmedabad, in the last week of April and on May 26, 2004, respectively while Javed and Jahan were picked up from a Vasad toll booth in Gujarat's Anand district on June 12, 2004. The CBI will soon submit its supplementary charge sheet in the case, the source said.