Ishrat: Delhi experts on way to see seized FSL disk

On March 3,SIT officers led by member Satish Verma visited the Gandhinagar FSL and confiscated a computer hard disk,some photographs and other documents related to the case following suspicions that some of these could have been doctored by Gandhinagar FSL officials. Joint Commissioner of Police Mohan Jha,who is also one of the three members of the SIT,had even ordered a probe into the “raid” after FSL officials complained that the evidence was taken away forcibly.

SIT chief Karnail Singh is also coming from Delhi along with forensic experts from the national capital to examine the seized evidence at the SIT office in Ahmedabad in the presence of all three SIT members. “Singh is also bringing along Delhi FSL experts,which has met with objection from a few officers here,” said an officer involved in the probe.

Verma said,“We are scrutinising the documents in the SIT office. SIT chief and others will also see them. We do not see any possibility of sending the records for forensic re-examination outside the state.”

An SIT official said it appeared that some of these photographs were doctored to back the Gujarat police theory that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not “staged”.

Officers involved in the probe earlier are also likely to be called in to see these new photographs. The SIT will also compare these with the photographs given to the earlier investigating team headed by Parikshta Gurjar.

Ishrat Jahan,her friend Javed Pillai and two others — alleged Pakistani terrorists Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana— were killed in an encounter near Ahmedabad on June 15,2004 . The Gujarat police had said they were all Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives out to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.