Click to play videoNew Delhi: The ghost of the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter has come to haunt the Gujarat government.
Five years later, an Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate has said that the encounter was fake. The report blames Gujarat police encounter specialist D G Vanzara for masterminding the cold blooded murder.
While the government has outrightly rejected the report, the victim’s family say they want the policemen involved in the encounter punished.
A day after that damning report, the Gujarat government hit out at Justice SP Tamang in an effort to protect chief minister Narendra Modi. Senior Gujarat minister Jay Narayan Vyas dismissed the validity of the report and questioned the motives of the magistrate.
Vyas said, “The state government feels that the report of Justice Tamang is legally not having the sanction of the appropriate law. The published report will be challenged in the appropriate court of law."
Already stung by the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheik for which D G Vanzara is already serving a jail term, the Gujarat government is clearly doing all it can to avoid any other such embarassing blows.
Vyas going into minute technicality to find fault in justice Tamang's report, even questioning why the report was completed before its deadline.
Vyas said, “This is part of a process, I would simply say when the superior court had ordered the inquiry on the same day, appointing a 3-member committee, that should have superseded the object for which the inquiry was appointed and Mr Tamang should have ceased to walk on this.”
While the government tried desperately to protect itself from being burnt further by justice Tamang's report, Ishrat's family claimed it as its victory, venting its anger in revenge.
Ishrat’s sister said, “We want strong punishment for those behind the fake encounter.”
With the government trying its best to discredit the report itself, Ishrat's family for the time being will have to be content with at least justice Tamang clearing their daughter's name.
In June 12, 2004, nineteen-year-old Ishrat Jahan was shot dead by Gujarat police claiming her a branded Lashkar terrorist. Along with her, the police also shot dead three others claiming that they were plotting to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.
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