Ishrat Jahan encounter case: BJP hails clean chit to Amit Shah

New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday sought dismissal of the plea by Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, who was among those killed with Ishrat Jahan, to arraign Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah and the then Ahmedabad police commissioner K.R. Kaushik in the case. Mr Pillai had cited the resignation letter of suspended IPS officer and an accused in the Ishrat Jahan case D.G. Vanzara in support of his petition.

Senior BJP leader Muqtar Abbas Naqvi said: “The CBI clean chit in court to Amit Shah will be seen as satyamev jayate (truth alone prevails). The Congress scripted a political conspiracy.”

The agency, in its affidavit further, said, “The said resignation letter contains general allegations against some persons and not providing any concrete information about the role of Shah in this offence. After receiving the letter, CBI examined Vanzara in the jail. However, he has not disclosed any further details during his examinations”. The CBI also said there was no evidence against Mr Kaushik to show his involvement in the encounter and so he was made a witness in the case. “During further investigation and evidence collected so far, it appears that Mr Kaushik was not involved in the conspiracy of killing the deceased,” the CBI affidavit said, adding the agency had shown him as a prosecution witness in its supplementary chargesheet in the case.