Ishrat killing: CBI to quiz IB officials

The SIT had analysed the intelligence input provided by the IB that alerted the state police about Laskhar-e-Taiba’s alleged plan to attack BJP leaders L K Advani,Narendra Modi and VHP leader Praveen Togadia. According to sources,the officers who were in-charge of the VIP security wing of the IB will be questioned in order to understand the basis of the alert issued in 2004.

The agency is also to investigate the inputs received by the state police that led to the identification of a blue car,in which Ishrat Jahan was travelling,as the car is which terrorists were reported to be travelling. The Gujarat High Court ordered the CBI to take over the investigation of the case,in which 19-year-old Ishrat,Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai,Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in Ahmedabad on June 15,2004 by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch led by DIG D G Vanzara.

A judicial inquiry report by the metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang had alleged that 21 police officers,including then Crime Branch Chief JCP P P Pande,suspended DIG D G Vanzara,the then ACP G L Singhal and ACP N K Amin were involved in the conspiracy regarding the encounter.Vanzara and Amin are currently in jail for their involvement in the fake encounter killing of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi.

The High Court had ordered the CBI to probe the claims made by the state police that Ishrat and three others were LeT terrorists who were planning to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The move came after the SIT constituted by the High Court concluded that the encounter was staged by the police and charged 20 policemen with murder and the destruction of evidence and forwarded its complaint to the CBI on December 15,2011.