Ex-A'bad police chief named in Ishrat FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mumbai, on Friday registered a first information report (FIR) against 20 policemen from Gujarat in connection with the alleged fake encounter of 19-year-old Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mumbai, on Friday registered a first information report (FIR) against 20 policemen from Gujarat in connection with the alleged fake encounter of 19-year-old Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan.

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The 20 policemen, which includes former Ahmedabad police commissioner KR Kaushik, were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that pertain to murder, abduction, criminal conspiracy, destruction of records and evidence.

Mumbra-based Ishrat and three others were killed on June 15, 2004, by an Ahmedabad police team, which claimed that the four were operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba and were on a mission to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The CBI registered the FIR a day after the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the Gujarat high court lodged a formal complaint at the agency's headquarters in New Delhi. The SIT had given a 22-page complaint for lodging a new FIR in the case. The papers were then transferred to the CBI's west zone in Mumbai, under which Gujarat falls, to register an FIR.

The SIT had last month told the Gujarat HC that the encounter was staged. Subsequently, on December 1, the HC directed the CBI to investigate the case and also asked the SIT to lodge a fresh FIR within two weeks. The HC had noted that the case was "exceptional and had national ramifications". The court also held the Gujarat police could not be trusted to carry out an impartial probe.