Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Kamal Farooqi on Wednesday said that the 2004 Ishrat Jahan case was without any doubt a fake encounter, and added that the CBI chargesheet would expose the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his former Home Minister Amit Shah in the case.
"This is for certain that it was a fake encounter and there is no doubt that the girl was first arrested and then later killed under mysterious circumstances leading to dubious encounter," Farooqi said.
"It is also coming to light that top officials and allegations are being levelled against the then Home Minister (Amit Shah) and Chief Minister (Narendra Modi). We can merely say what action can be taken only after CBI files a charge sheet," he added.
Human rights activist and a petitioner in this case, Vrinda Grover, on her part said the investigation done so far by the various investigating agencies has declared the encounter as fake.
"Every time an independent impartial probe is done into this killing, whether it is the judicial inquiry report of S P Tamang the Metropolitan Magistrate of Ahmedabad, a judicial officer of Gujarat in 2009, which said that she (Ishrat Jahan) was an innocent girl, a student of first year from Mumbai or it is the SIT (Special Investigation Team) report and SIT which comprised of a selected Police officer of the Gujarat Government which unanimously declared the encounter to be fake and Ishrat to be innocent," said Grover.
Meanwhile, Mukul Sinha, the lawyer for the family of Javed Sheikh, one of the four killed in the encounter, said the CBI chargesheet might reveal the name of prominent politicians and police officers involved in the fake encounter.
"Today, according to what we have heard, a charge sheet is being filed but the investigation is not over. The investigation will continue under (section) 173(8) and after that not only prominent police officers but we believe that the names of several political persons whose names are involved in the encounter will also be revealed," he told the media in Ahmedabad.
The CBI will today file a chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan case and is likely to name only those policemen who were at the scene of crime besides seeking more time in a bid to probe the conspiracy angle behind the incident.
The Gujarat High Court had earlier told the CBI to file the chargesheet at the earliest so that no more accused can get out on default bail, while a top official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was interrogated for his role in the alleged fake encounter killing.
The court asked the CBI to focus on the conspiracy involving the custody of the deceased, the encounter and the persons involved in the alleged conspiracy and the alleged fake gunfight in which the four persons were killed.
The court also allowed CBI's plea seeking that Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who has been assisting the CBI in the investigation, be dropped from the probe team from June 23.
The CBI earlier this month grilled Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Rajender Kumar at an unknown location in Gandhinagar in connection with his role in the case and three others by Ahmedabad police.
The CBI, which is investigating the case on the directive of the Gujarat High Court, wants to charge the then Ahmedabad IB station chief Rajender Kumar for conspiracy to murder.
Nineteen-year-old Ishrat was killed along with three others on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a team of Crime Branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The Crime Branch had then claimed that the four were LeT members and were on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
