Ishrat case: IO didn’t suspect it was fake operation

Parixita Rathod, Ahmedabad crime branch’s then ACP, who conducted investigations into the Ishrat Jahan encounter didn’t suspect the encounter could be fake while taking orders from then ACP DG Vanzara and joint commissioner of police PP Pandey, according to CBI charge sheet. Abhishek Sharan reports.

Parixita Rathod, Ahmedabad crime branch’s then ACP, who conducted investigations into the Ishrat Jahan encounter didn’t suspect the encounter could be fake while taking orders from then ACP DG Vanzara and joint commissioner of police PP Pandey, according to CBI charge sheet.

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Rathod, who was the then in-charge of Mahila Police Station (CB), had filed a final report in the case concluding the deceased were allegedly “terrorists and the encounter was genuine” but it was rejected by the designated special court, according to CBI’s charge sheet that named Vanzara and Pandey among the seven accused police officers. Four persons, including Ishrat Jahan, were killed in the encounter.

“My focus during the period of investigation was unearthing the larger anti-national conspiracy. Therefore, I did not suspect the narration in the FIR CR No. 8/2004. Corroborative statements were given by police officers connected with the investigation,” said Rathod in her witness statement.

In her statement, Rathod said Vanzara and Pandey had allegedly told her “it was a genuine police encounter” and it involved a “larger motive of the Lashkar-e-Taiba”.