Filing its first charge sheet in the case, the CBI described the encounter as a "joint operation" by Gujarat Police and the Intelligence Bureau, and said the role of its Special Director Rajinder Kumar and three other officers was still being probed.
Kumar, posted as Joint Director of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau in Gujarat at the time of the encounter, was said to have generated intelligence about terrorists of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba having sneaked into Gujarat to assassinate Modi.
Those against whom the charge sheet was filed for murder and criminal conspiracy include absconding Additional DGP P P Pandey and suspended DIG D G Vanzara.
"The encounter was a joint operation between Gujarat police and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the state," CBI said in the charge sheet, adding, "the encounter was fake and in cold blood".
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The CBI told the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate H S Khutwad that their investigation has established offence against all seven police officers charge sheeted in the case.
A supplementary charge sheet would be filed once the investigation was over, the court was told.
Apart from Pandey and Vanzara other Gujarat police officers who have been charge-sheeted are G L Singhal, Tarun Barot, N K Amin, J G Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary.
Ishrat, hailing from Mumbra in Thane district adjoining Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the alleged encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.