A special CBI court on Thursday, May 2, discharged former Gujarat police officers DG Vanzara and NK Amin in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. Vanzara and Amin had filed discharge applications in the court after the Gujarat government refused to grant sanctions to the CBI to prosecute the ex-policemen.
Special CBI court judge JK Pandya said that since the government has not sanctioned their prosecution, their discharge pleas are allowed and proceedings against them will be dropped in the case.
The former police officers were accused of carrying out a "fake encounter" that led to the deaths of Ishrat Jahan and three others. The encounter took place on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004. The Gujarat Police had stated that Ishrat Jahan and the others killed in the encounter had links with terrorists.
Under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the government's sanction is necessary for the prosecution of a public servant for an act done as part of the official duty.
Ishrat, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by the Gujarat Police in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
The police had claimed they were terrorists and come to Gujarat to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi.
