Ishrat encounter case: Fifth Gujarat cop arrested

Ahmedabad: The CBI arrested one more Gujarat policeman in connection with the alleged fake encounter killing of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others by Ahmedabad Crime Branch in 2004.

Anaju Chaudhary, a commando with State Reserve Police Force, was arrested here late last night, making him the fifth policeman to be taken into custody in the nine-year-old case.

He was then deputed to protect Tarun Barot, a suspended deputy superintendent of Police (DySP) who too has been arrested.

Chaudhary, at present posted at the office of Gujarat minister of state for home at Gandhinagar, has been booked for murder, conspiracy, illegal detention and abduction besides under relevant sections of the Arms Act, CBI sources said.

He was today presented before the Special CBI court, which sent him in CBI custody till March 4, rejecting the Central agency's plea for 14-day remand.

Explaining Chaudhary's role in the encounter, CBI said he had fired 10 rounds from his service weapon at the order of IPS officer G L Singhal, first police officer to be arrested in the case, but had not submited the empty cartridges.

"We suspect he was also involved in the conspiracy of the fake encounter and had not cooperated during his questioning earlier," CBI claimed in its remand plea.

Isharat, a 19-year-old student, along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, were killed in an encounter with the police on June 15, 2004 on the city's outskirts.

Gujarat Police had then claimed all four were terrorists out to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.

Besides Singhal, who was taken into custody by CBI last week, other accused in the case are Barot, retired DSP J G Parmar and Inspector Bharat Patel.

Barring Chaudhary, all others were posted with Crime Branch at time of the encounter, which was later found to be fake by a Gujarat high court-constituted SIT.