Fawda was quot;unidentifiedquot;

March 4: The Sessions Court probe into alleged police encounters, in which peanut vendor Abu Sayama alias Javed Fawda was killed, took an in...

March 4: The Sessions Court probe into alleged police encounters, in which peanut vendor Abu Sayama alias Javed Fawda was killed, took an interesting turn today when a sub inspector disclosed that he did not record the identity of the deceased although a detailed description had been given by his sister Rubina.

On a petition filed by the Samajwadi Party, Bombay High Court ordered a probe by principal sessions Judge A S Aguiar into the police encounter last year in which the peanut vendor was killed on a mistaken belief that he was criminal Javed Fawda.

PSI Bhadu Bhau Bhonsale of the Bandra police station told the petitioner8217;s counsel Majeed Memon during cross-examination that a constable had been deputed on September 2 and 4 last year to visit Sayama8217;s house to find out whether he was the same Javed Fawda who was killed in the encounter.

However, he felt that such an inquiry was not important and so did not make entry in police records. The witness admitted that he had also not mentioned in the stationdiary that Sayama and Javed Fawda were the same person although it was alleged by his sister that she identified the person at Esplanade court on September 2 as Javed Kaliya.

Bhosale disagreed with the lawyer8217;s suggestion that he had deliberately not recorded the entry or that he had forgotten to do so or that he considered it unimportant.

He said that he did not mention Fawda8217;s name as he was only concerned with missing persons and not Javed Fawda as the name mentioned in the missing complaint was registered as Javed Abid Ali. Besides, the age of the missing person was given as 18 years and the person killed in the police encounter was given as 24 years in the newspapers, PSI Bhosale stated.

The police witness also denied that he could not show the photograph of the missing person at the police parade on the next day August 29 as was normally done since Rubina had not provided her brother8217;s photograph. He said that neither did he visit Rubina8217;s residence nor send a constable there to bring thephotograph of the missing person on August 29 and 30. The Bandra police officer had sent a constable to make inquiries about the missing person as stated above, but no one was home, he added.