Gujarat 2002-06 killings: No evidence of involvement of state govt or high-profile public office holders

New Delhi: The Supreme Court appointed Justice HS Bedi committee that investigated the encounter killings in Gujarat during 2002-2006 has not found any evidence of involvement of the state government or high-profile public office holders of that time.

The committee that investigated 17 encounter deaths from that period concluded that three of those were in fake encounters by the Gujarat Police, said people familiar with the findings. It has recommended action against police officials in these three cases, they said.

“As per evidence and witness statements, Samir Khan, Haji Ismail and Kasim Jaffer Hussain have been killed in fake encounters,” the committee is learnt to have stated in its report filed before the apex court. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered that the report be given to petitioners including lyricist Javed Akhtar, rejecting the Gujarat government’s plea to keep the findings confidential.


The probe found no systematic targeting or killing of members of a minority community, as those who were killed in encounters were from different communities. It is also learnt to have cleared senior police officer DG Vanzara of any involvement in the fake encounters, but said “he tried to sidetrack the investigations”.

ET had first reported in February 2016 that the committee had not found any evidence against highprofile politicians or public officeholders of the then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat and that it was likely to conclude that three encounters were fake.

“The report has concluded that there was no pattern or religious angle or systematic targeting of minorities in these encounters. In fact, people killed were from different communities and a majority of them had criminal records,” a person in the know said. “There were also cases of deaths of Hindus and Sikhs. These cases were of individuals who came from Kerala, Garhwal, UP and MP, and a local Sikh from Gujarat was also killed.”

The report highlighted the three encounters that were found to be fake by the committee.

“One serious case was of killing of Kasim Jaffer, who was allegedly beaten to death in police custody in 2002, and witnesses deposed before the committee that they had seen police carry iron rods, sarees and ropes. And, in Haji Ismail’s case, there was no deposition before the committee, which indicted police on the basis of forensic evidence,” a person quoted the report as saying.

Samir Khan was also killed in 2002. He was described by the police as a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist, and was alleged to be involved in a conspiracy to kill VVIPs.

The SC in 2012 appointed retired top court judge Bedi as the chairman of the monitoring authority tasked with probing all encounter deaths in Gujarat from 2002 to 2006. The direction, from a bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, came in response to two PILs filed by veteran journalist BG Verghese and Akhtar, who requested a probe by an independent agency or the CBI. The committee submitted its report to the Supreme Court in February 2018.