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SC blow to Ishrat cops

Published On : 12 Mar 2016


New Delhi, (The Telegraph): The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition seeking legal immunity for the officers who killed Ishrat Jahan and three others accused of Lashkar links in an alleged fake encounter and perjury proceedings against former home minister P. Chidambaram.

However, a bench of Justices P.C. Pant and Amitava Roy, while dismissing the plea moved by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, granted liberty to the officers or any other person with a locus standi - someone with a legal right in the case - to move such a plea before "an appropriate court".

Sharma's PIL said that since Ishrat and the others were alleged to be part of a Lashkar suicide squad out to eliminate then chief minister Narendra Modi, their 2004 killing was justified as it was done in the interest of national security and the cops could not be prosecuted for the offence.

The bench was of the view that since Sharma was not an aggrieved person, he could not invoke the jurisdiction of the court for enforcement of any fundamental rights.

Though Sharma pleaded that he was espousing the cause of the officers and hundreds of military personnel who sacrificed their lives for protecting the country from terrorists, the bench was not impressed with the argument, saying it was for the aggrieved persons to move court.

The bench then proceeded to dismiss the petition but additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Gujarat government, intervened to say the court should allow "persons who have any locus in the matter to approach the court for any remedy".

Though the killings occurred more than a decade ago, they continue to dominate the present Parliament session after claims of Chidambaram's effort to change an affidavit in 2009 to delete any reference to Ishrat's Lashkar links - as testified recently by 26/11 conspirator David Headley before a Mumbai court through a video link from a US prison.

In 2009 a metropolitan magistrate, S.P. Tamang, had in a report indicted several Gujarat police officers, including then DIG D.G. Vanzara, saying Ishrat and the others were killed in a cold-blooded manner by the cops to bag certain rewards from the state government.

However, in 2010, Gujarat High Court raised doubts over Tamang's report and its findings. It appointed a special investigation team (SIT), which later came to the conclusion that the encounter was stage-managed. The case was subsequently transferred to the CBI, which filed a chargesheet against several police officers, including Vanzara and some others.

Sharma's PIL sought suo motu contempt and perjury proceedings against Chidambaram alleging he had facilitated a "false affidavit" and "concealed" facts about Ishrat's alleged Lashkar links.

The petition cited recent media comments by former Union home secretary G.K. Pillai suggesting that certain references to the alleged terror links of Ishrat, a teenager from Mumbai, were removed in a second affidavit filed in Gujarat High Court in 2009. An earlier affidavit had mentioned such links with the terror group.







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