CID revisits 26-year-old ‘encounter’

While two members of the Mokha family were allegedly killed in an encounter,the other two went missing. The family later claimed all four were killed by police.

On April 10,1984,Umar Wali Mohammad Mokha and Fakir Mohmmad Buta Mokha,who were facing the charges of smuggling,were allegedly killed in an encounter on the outskirts of Vamora village by the district police. Two days earlier,two other members of the same family,Haji Juma Wali Mohammad Mokha and his son Ibrahim,were reportedly picked up by the police and were never to be seen again.

In connection with disappearance of the duo,the family had filed a police complaint and subsequently a habeas corpus was filed in the High Court. PSI P Bishnoyee,who was part of Sharma’s encounter team,was later acquitted. Sharma is now the director of Gujarat State Sheep and Wool Corporation.

In February 2010,Yusuf Mohammad Mokha,a relative of Juma and Ibrahim,wrote to state DGP S S Khandwawala alleging that Sharma and PSI Bishnoyee had registered fake complaint against Wali Mohammad and later picked up the father-son duo and killed them. Following Mokha’s application,the DGP handed over investigation to Kutch Range IG and forwarded a copy to the CID.

The CID sources said the team had come to take statements of victims’ family.