[LST] Stop fantasies from creeping into Ishrat Jahan investigations - The Times of India on Mobile

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Stop fantasies from creeping into Ishrat Jahan investigations
Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN | Jul 1, 2013, 04.50AM IST 
Nine years ago, 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others — Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Gulam Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar — were killed by Gujarat police who claimed to have busted a Lashkar-e-Taiba module on a mission to eliminate chief minister Narendra Modi.

In 2004, a Lahore-based LeT publication claimed the four killed to be the terror outfit's operatives. Three years later, LeT's political wing Jamaat-ud-Dawa retracted the earlier claim and apologized to Ishrat's family.

Both Ishrat's mother and Pillai's father untiringly petitioned the courts for a fair investigation into the killings as they believed the police story to be too fantastic to be true.

Statutory inquiry into the encounter killing by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang blew the lid off Gujarat police's claim and put them in the dock for an alleged cold blooded pre-designed murder.

Many things tumbled out when investigators shook the cupboard and punched holes in the encounter theory spun by Gujarat cops. However, the latest revelations by CBI appear even more fantastic.

A news report last week caught the eye with a dramatic introductory paragraph, Did 'grey beard' and 'black beard' know before hand about the Ishrat Jahan encounter?

It said the CBI claimed that "a cop heard the now jailed DIG DG Vanzara, accused of killing Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi besides Ishrat, telling Rajinder Kumar of Intelligence Bureau that both 'safed dadhi' (grey beard) and 'kaali dadhi' (black beard) had approved the plan to kill the 19-year-old and three others".

Given the CBI's record in cracking difficult cases, we are sure the agency has much better ways of gathering evidence, which are not only admissible in a court of law but would also stand the test of trial, to nail all accused in Ishrat's case.

It must and is duty bound to steadfastly do so because fake encounters are legally and morally reprehensible in a country governed by rule of law. But the introduction of 'safed dadhi' and 'kaali dadhi' phantoms into the Ishrat Jahan killing conspiracy appears both childish and crude.

It reminds one of the CBI case where top politicians were accused of receiving bribes from hawala operators. On the basis of two spiral notepads and a file containing some loose sheets of paper seized from hawala operators, the CBI sensationally charged many politicians including BJP's LK Advani and Congress's VC Shukla.

All that the CBI had gathered to build a case against Advani and Shukla was that initials "LKA" and VCS" figured in the spiral notepads and against which fantastic amounts were written. The agency hoped this evidence would convince the courts to infer that these monies were paid to the politicians from amounts received through hawala channels in return for official and political favours.

Advani was accused of receiving Rs 25 lakh from hawal operators as an MP in addition to Rs 35 lakh which he was allegedly paid while not being an MP. Shukla, as MP and for some time a Cabinet minister, had allegedly received Rs 39 lakh from hawala operators during the same period.

The trial court framed charges against Advani and Shukla on January 23, 1996. Both moved the Delhi high court seeking quashing of charges on the ground that the evidence had no legal basis.

This reporter witnessed a rather interesting start to the proceedings before Justice Mohd Shamim. The moment senior advocate Ram Jethmalani got up to argue for the accused, Justice Shamim reflected on the popular sentiment to say, "Mr Jethmalani, these politicians appear to be corrupt and don't expect any relief for them from this court."

Jethmalani took the comment in his stride, gathered his wits and with a straight face said, "My Lord is absolutely right! These politicians deserve no leniency. But there is a legal issue here. If after dismissal of the appeals, I go back home and write in my pocket diary the initials 'MS' and put a fantastic figure against it, will my Lord face charges of receiving that money from me?"

Jethmalani's question defiantly summed up the defence's case and pointed out the legal fantasy penned by the CBI in its chargesheet. Justice Shamim straightened his back and listened with rapt attention to Jethmalani, who went on to shred the prosecution case.

In his judgment, Justice Shamim said, "In the present case, there is no evidence against the petitioners (Advani and Shukla) except the diaries, note books and the loose sheet with regard to the alleged payments (vide MR Nos. 68/91, 72/91 and 73/91). The said evidence is of such a nature which cannot be converted into legal evidence against the petitioners."

We sincerely hope and trust the CBI to bring all players, in addition to the cops already in jail, to book in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case by gathering cogent evidence, which must be scientific enough to remain unshakable during trial.

But let the CBI not do it through sensational yet laughable "safed dadhi' and 'kaali dadhi' theories to provide seasoned lawyers like Jethmalani opportunity to shave it clean during trial.

dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
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Saurav Datta

Twitter : SauravDatta29

"To those who believe in resistance , who live between hope and impatience and have learned the perils of being unreasonable. To those who understand enough to be afraid, and yet retain their fury"
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Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

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