SC stays Ishrat case in Gujarat High Court

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further proceedings in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case in the Gujarat High Court.

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further proceedings in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case in the Gujarat High Court. The case pertains to the June 15,2004 alleged fake encounter of Ishrat and three others,whom the Gujarat Police had accused of being terrorists.

Apart from Ishrat,others killed by the police in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad were Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai,Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani.

Taking up the application filed by Ishrats mother Shamima Kausar,who prayed that the Gujarat High Court be restrained from taking up any matter relating to the issue as the same was pending in the Supreme Court,the Bench,while staying all proceedings in the High Court,posted the matter to December 7 for further hearing.

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In her application,Shamima had stated that even though the Supreme Court had already issued notice to the state and others on her plea,the High Court had listed the matter for Monday for final disposal.

On October 6,the court had issued notice to the state government on Shamimas plea challenging the Gujarat High Court order staying the report of Magistrate S P Tamang in the matter. In his report,Tamang had strongly indicted the police for stage- managing the encounter.

Ishrats family had contended that the Tamang report could not be stayed as the Magistrate had conducted the inquiry on the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Ahmedabad.

The Gujarat High Court had on September 9 stayed Tamangs report on a plea by the Narendra Modi government which contended that the observations made in the report were beyond the jurisdiction of the magistrate.

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Tamangs report had said that the encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat and three others were gunned down while allegedly plotting to kill Modi was fake and executed in cold blood by police officers for selfish motives.

The report of the investigation conducted by the magistrate had held senior police officers responsible for staging the encounter.