A Special CBI court on Thursday discharged former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin in the case of killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others in an alleged fake encounter. The court approved their pleas to drop proceedings against them on the ground that the Gujarat government has decided to not grant sanction to prosecute them in the case. The government held that they did their official duty and thus there was no need to prosecute them as required under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Nineteen-year-old Ishrat Jahan from Mumbai and Javed Shaikh, alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the allegedly fake encounter in 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The CBI had told the court that sanction was not granted to prosecute the two, who were
chargesheeted as key accused in their case. The police had claimed the four were linked with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pak based terror outfit and had plans to kill Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat CM.

Under section 197, a State government’s sanction is necessary for prosecution of a public servant for an act done as part of official duty. The court had rejected their discharge applications in the case.

—India Legal Bureau