A special CBI court in Ahmedabad approved the discharge plea of three police officers and accordingly discharged G.L. Singhal, Tarun Barot and Anaju Chaudhary in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case .
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As a result, the police officials will not face any proceedings or trial in the case as the court held that the officials acted as per their duty.
Special CBI judge V.R. Raval allowed the discharge applications of Mr. Singhal, Mr. Barot, he is now retired and Mr. Chaudhary.
Earlier, the prosecution agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on March 20 had conveyed to the court that the State government had declined prosecution sanction against the three accused.
The Court in its October 2020 order observed that they had "acted in their official duties," so the probe agency was required to obtain prosecution sanction . However, the same was declined by the Gujarat government.
The Court had also discharged key accused P.P. Pandey, D.G. Vanzara and N.K. Amin from the proceedings earlier.
Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra near Mumbai, was killed along with Javed Shaikh (alias Pranesh Pillai), Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar by Gujarat police in an 'encounter' near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
The police had said that the four were terrorists who were planning to assassinate then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
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However, a High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team concluded that the encounter was fake, after which the CBI registered a case against various police officials.
The SIT had in its report to the High Court had held that the four persons who were murdered were already in the prior custody of the police and dubbed the operation as a joint exercise of Gujarat Police and officials of the central Intelligence Bureau (IB).
