Court rejects plea for further probe in Jamal encounter case

A special CBI court today dismissed a petition seeking direction to the central probe agency for further investigation into the alleged fake encounter of Sadiq Jamal.
Special CBI judge K M Dave while dismissing the petition observed that the agency was already investigating the case further after having filed the charge sheet in December 2012.
The petition, moved by Jamal's brother Shabbir, soon after CBI filed charge sheet, sought further investigation into the case as the petitioner claimed that conspiracy angle to the alleged encounter was not revealed.
The petitioner wanted investigation into the alleged role of police officials including retired DIG D G Vanzara, who is now out on bail in Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, P P Pandey, currently serving as in-charge DGP, and Mumbai police officer Daya Nayak, in the crime as also the political motive behind it.

The petitioner had said that the CBI did not probe aspects such as the origin of country-made pistol recovered from Sadiq Jamal after the encounter, or the role of Vanzara, the then DCP (crime) for detaining the deceased, or whether it was a political murder since crime branch had then said that Jamal had come to murder the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.
During the arguments held earlier, the petitioner had sought a court-monitored time-bound investigation, saying that nearly four years after submitting the charge sheet, the agency had not placed any report before the court on further investigation carried by it.

Sadiq Jamal was killed in a police encounter in Ahmedabad in January 2003. Police had then claimed he was a Laskar-e- Taiba terrorist out on a mission to kill Modi.
In its charge sheet, CBI said that the encounter was staged as Jamal was brought to Ahmedabad from the custody of Mumbai police by Gujarat police officials Tarun Barot and seven others.