The special CBI court exuded former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin from the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case on Thursday, 2 May, 2019. The discharge applications of Vanzara and Amin, which they had filed after the Gujarat government, refused to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute them, it was reported.
Special CBI court judge J K Pandya said that since the government did not sanction their prosecution, Vanzara and Amin were allowed and proceedings against them would be dropped in the case. All the charges are dropped against both of them.
Ishrat Jahan encounter case accused the police officers of jointly carrying out a staged encounter killing by shooting dead four people on 15 June 2004. The final verdict was given by the court in Gujarat, Ahmedabad.
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Under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the government's sanction is necessary for the fulfillment of a public servant for an act done as part of the official duty.
Ishrat, a 19-year-old from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by the Gujarat Police in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
The police affirmed they were terrorists and planning to murder the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. It is reported that:
- NK Amin fired 5 rounds from his 9mm pistol.
» JG Parmar fired 4 rounds from his revolver.
» Tarun Barot fired 6 rounds from his revolver and 3 rounds from the revolver of IK Chauhan.
» Mohan Kalaswa fired 32 rounds from his AK-47 and 10 rounds from the AK47 of Commando Mohan Nanji; and
» Anaju Jiman Chaudhary fired 10 rounds from his Stengun.
"It is a matter of record that it is the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and not the state of Gujarat, which is the appropriate sanctioning authority in the present case," said lawyer Vrinda Grover.
“Both the central and state governments consider it as a discharge of duty. Based on this, the CBI court in Ahmedabad has discharged Vanzara and Amin,” CBI counsel RC Kodekar said.
“After physical and mental ordeal of years, including eight years in jail, finally it has been accepted that we were on discharging our duty,” NK Amin said after the verdict.