‘Four suspects hadn’t fired a single bullet’

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe found that none of the four suspects including Mumbai’s Ishrat Jahan, who were allegedly killed during a police encounter in June 2004 in Ahmedabad, had fired a single bullet at the crime scene. Abhishek Sharan reports.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe found that none of the four suspects including Mumbai’s Ishrat Jahan, who were allegedly killed during a police encounter in June 2004 in Ahmedabad, had fired a single bullet at the crime scene.

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Forensic tests with the use of cotton swabs revealed that the four deceased had not fired a single bullet at the site where the alleged police encounter occurred on June 15, 2004, according to a CBI source. “No residue of exploded ammunition was found on their hands,” the source added. “The four deceased were suspected to have been killed away from the encounter site a day before the incident. The accused brought their bodies to the site early the next day,” sources said.

According to the source, forensic tests revealed that the four deceased had been allegedly killed with three weapons— an AK-56 and two pistols of 9-mm calibre—that the cops had not used in the encounter.

Police documents had maintained that seven policemen of the Ahmedabad crime branch had fired 70 bullets using two AK-47 automatics, a sten gun, and three service revolvers at the deceased near Kotarpur Water Works in the city. Not a single spent shell fired from their weapons was found from there.