Guj encounters: Justice Bedi panel recommends prosecution of 9 cops in 3 out of 17 cases

The Justice H S Bedi committee, which investigated several cases of alleged fake encounter in Gujarat from 2002 to 2006, has recommended prosecution of police officials in three out of the 17 cases probed by it.

In its final report filed in the apex court, Justice Bedi has said three persons -- Sameer Khan, Kasam Jafar and Haji Haji Ismail -- were prime facie killed in fake encounters by the Gujarat Police officials.

The committee has indicted a total of nine police officials, including three inspector rank officer.

It has however not recommended prosecution of any IPS officer in these cases.

The court had appointed Justice Bedi, ex-Supreme Court judge, as chairman of the monitoring committee probing 17 encounter cases from 2002 to 2006 in Gujarat and the panel had submitted its report to the top court in a sealed cover in February last year.

On January 9, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had rejected the Gujarat government's plea to maintain confidentiality of the final report of committee and ordered that it be given to petitioners, including poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar.

Dealing with the case of Sameer Khan, the committee has recommended prosecution of two inspectors K M Vaghela and T A Barot for the offence of murder and other relevant offences.

According to the police, Sameer along with his cousin had stabbed a police constable, who had died on the spot in May 1996. While his cousin was arrested, he had fled from spot.

The police had alleged that later he went to Pakistan and took training from terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and re-entered India via Nepal.

The report noted that as per police, after the 2002 Akshardham Mandir attack, Sameer was directed by a Pakistan-based JeM operative to go to Ahmedabad and kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

It noted that Sameer was arrested by the Crime Branch in a case related to waging war against the country and when he was taken at the spot where the constable was stabbed in 1996, he snatched the loaded revolver of inspector Vaghela and fired at him and ran away.

As per police, the other two inspectors -- Tarun Barot and A A Chauhan (since dead) -- fired at him and he was later taken to a hospital but was declared dead.

However, the panel has found that he was killed in a fake encounter by the police.

Referring to the medical and other reports, the committee has said, "It is, therefore, obvious that the police officers were close and towering over the deceased and he was probably sitting on the ground and perhaps cringing for his life."