Ishrat case: SIT, experts reconstruct encounter

AHMEDABAD: The Special Investigation Team ( SIT), probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, along with other experts, today reconstructed the incident at the original site near Kotarpur area here.

A team comprising of over a dozen personnel from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS), forensic science experts, along with the Gujarat High Court appointed SIT chairman Karnal Singh, and its members Mohan Jha and Satish Verma visited the site near the Sardar Patel International Airport.

The team began by studying the site and reconstructing the series of events that took place during the encounter as described in the FIR filed in 2004 by the city crime branch officials.

It also examined the place where weapons were found, and where the car carrying Ishrat and others was when bullets were fired at it.

Two of the police officers involved in the over six-year old encounter -- Girish Singhal (presently posted as SP, state ATS) and Tarun Barot (currently heading the city's special operations group) were also present to assist the team.

Ishrat and three others Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were killed on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

After the encounter, city crime branch had claimed that the deceased were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who had come to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.