CBI on Thursday filed a progress report on its probe in the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others, the hearing on which is scheduled for Friday. "As directed by the court during last hearing, investigating officer of CBI on Thursday filed the progress report of its probe in a sealed cover before Registrar (Judicial) Gujarat High Court," said advocate Yogesh Rawani, who is representing the central agency.
On May 10, a division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari monitoring the investigation, after expressing satisfaction over the probe, had granted more time to the agency and asked it to submit a progress report by Thursday and also fixed the hearing of the case for June 14.
Since the last hearing, CBI has made significant progress in its investigations, having arrested suspended IPS officer and prime accused in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case DG Vanzara, who is now lodged in Sabarmati central jail under judicial custody in this case.
Besides, CBI summoned and grilled Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar in this case for the inputs generated about four "terrorists" entering the state to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
According to sources, CBI has summoned Rajendra Kumar, who was posted as Joint Director IB in Gujarat at the time of encounter, to record his statement as an accused. On June 15, 2004 Mumbra (Mumbai) girl Ishrat along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, mjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter near Ahmedabad.
Gujarat Police at that time had claimed, on the basis of IB inputs, that all four were terrorists who entered the city to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In a setback to another IPS officer and an accused in the case ADGP (Crime) PP Pandey, against whom an arrest warrant was issued on May 2, Supreme Court rejected his plea to quash FIR against him and denied him any relief against his arrest.
Subsequently, CBI has filed an application before the special CBI court here to declare him an absconder and a 'proclaimed offender' under section 82 of Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC).
In this past month, since the last hearing in the High Court, five suspended IPS officers, namely, GL Singhal, Tarun Barot, JG Parmar, Bharat Patel and Anaju Chaudhary, all accused in the case, were granted bail as CBI failed to file charge sheet against them within 90 days of their arrest. The agency also summoned and examined former DGP of the state KR Kaushik, who was Police Commissioner of the city when the encounter took place.
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