Ishrat Jahan encounter: Judge in encounter case recuses

The CBI’s special public prosecutor, R C Kodekar, said, “The special judge informed us that one of the defence lawyers (B P Jhala) is known to him. Therefore, he is recusing from the case.”

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Gohil was made special CBI judge in December 2014 and asked to conduct proceedings in the Ishrat case last year. He has exempted key accused D G Vanzara from appearing after the retired Gujarat police officer sought exemption from appearance because a Bombay High Court has confined him to Mumbai.

Thursday’s development holds up a case already crawling; it has been listed at the stage of framing of charges for more than one-and-a-half-years. The CBI has prepared a supplementary chargesheet against four IB officers but has not been able to progress beyond that, with the Ministry of Home Affairs refusing to sanction prosecution of the officers. Now, the process of replacing the judge is likely to take time as Gujarat’s acting chief justice has been transferred to Karnataka and a new chief justice is yet to take charge.