The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday opposed the discharge pleas of retired IPS officer D.G. Vanzara and former Superintendent of Police N.K. Amin in the infamous Ishrat Jahan fake shootout case of 2004.
Ishrat Jahan, Javed alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amzad Ali Rana were gunned down by a team of Vanzara's men in Ahmedabad in July 2004.
The Gujarat Police had claimed that Ishrat and her friends were terrorists, who were in the state with a plot to kill then Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Opposing the discharge pleas, the CBI stated that it had evidence to establish that Vanzara was the mastermind of entire operation and that N.K. Amin was present at the site of the gunfight.
After DGP P.P. Pandey was discharged in the same case by the special court in February this year, Vanzara and Amin also sought discharge from the CBI chargesheet claiming innocence.
Dubbing the charges against him "politically motivated", Vanzara stated in the plea that he was also facing more or less same charges as Pandey, and therefore, he should also be acquitted.
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But the CBI on Friday argued that it had adequate proof to nail Vanzara as the main conspirator in the case.
Amin's submission claimed that there was no forensic evidence of his involvement in the crime, to which CBI said they did have forensic evidence to prove that Amin had fired from his gun and there were witnesses, too, who had seen Amin at the site.
The court has fixed May 5 as the next date of hearing in the case.
--IANS
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