Sadiq Jamal encounter: Special CBI court rejects discharge plea of accused retired policeman

“We are going to move High Court against the order as the special has not dealt with the issue of prior sanction for prosecuting a government servant,” said advocate Virat Popat who appeared for Vaghela in the court.

Vaghela is among the eight police officials chargesheeted by the CBI in December 2012 for conspiracy, kidnapping and killing of Bhavnagar youth Sadiq Jamal in a staged encounter in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The other accused officers are DySP Tarun Barot, retired DySP J G Parmar, police inspectors GH Gohil and RL Mavani, head constables Ajaypal Singh and Chatrashingh Chudasama among others.

The CBI had opposed Vaghela’s discharge plea and had stated in its reply that “Sadiq was not a terrorist.” CBI has alleged that Vaghela was part of the conspiracy right from the beginning till the execution of stage managed encounter.

CBI has also alleged that Vaghela was part of the conspiracy through which Sadiq was handed over to accused Gujarat police officials by Mumbai police officers. According to CBI, Sadiq was kept in illegal confinement and killed him on January 13, 2003 in the fake encounter.

Sadiq, a resident of Bhavnagar, was branded as “Lashkar-e-Toiba operative out to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi and other saffron leaders”. This is also the first case in which role of Intelligence Bureau officials had come to the fore. The CBI is expected to file a supplementary chargesheet on the roles of several police officials of Mumbai, IB officials and senior Gujarat police officials.