Click to play videoNew Delhi: Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Samir Khan Pathan, Sadik Jamal, Ishrat Jahan and Javed Shaikh are among 22 people killed in encounters by controversial Gujarat DIG Vanzara and his Anti-Terror Squad.
They were all allegedly terrorists plotting to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
But in his documentary Encountered On Saffron Agenda, filmmaker Subhradeep Chakraborty claims that these killings too were fake encounters.
“My film contests the claims of the Gujarat police that they killed Lashkar and Jaish terrorists who were planning to kill Narendra Modi. In fact, through inter-linked testimonies of the families of the victims, their lawyers and independent investigators my film raises credible doubts about the intention and motive of the Gujarat government,” says Chakraborty.
Nineteen-year-old Ishrat Jahan from Thane in Maharashtra and Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, a Pune businessman, were killed in an encounter June 2004.
In the film, their families and lawyers question the police reports. “It was said that four terrorist fired at a large police team but no policeman got injured. How could it be possible? Javed was driving. He fired bullets. The girl also fired at them. Other terrorists also fired heavily but not even a dog got killed,” says Javed Sheikh’s father, Gopinathan Pillai.
Ishrat Jahan's sister Musarrat also questions the police role. “If a girl was sitting in a car so the bullet would hit her hand, abdomen, sides etc. But one bullet caught her between the legs. I am sure police raped her and to hide their misdeeds they fired there. I can't even imagine that police can be so immoral,” she says.
The film also highlights the case of Sadik Jamal, a domestic help from Mumbai killed by Vanzara in an encounter in 2003
“Shouldn’t someone have seen it? When encounter took place someone might have been witnessed it, isn’t it? At least someone must have heard the gun shot? There is nothing like that in this,” says Sadik Jamal's uncle Musa Bhai.
The Gujarat government and police refused to speak with the filmmaker. But the awkward co-incidence that with the arrest of DIG Vanzara, all terrorist attempts on Modi's life seem to have ceased suggest that the disturbing questions the film raises, deserve an answer.
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