Ishrat Jahan case: CBI ascertaining authenticity of tapes

NEW DELHI: CBI is ascertaining the authenticity of tapes with purported conversations of Gujarat Government officials allegedly discussing ways to help the accused police personnel in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

The agency which has submitted the tapes to the trial court in Ahmedabad in a sealed cover might include these details in its supplementary charge sheet which is likely to unveil the conspiracy behind the fake encounter, CBI sources said.

They said it is very crucial to ascertain whether the people heard speaking in the tapes are the same persons who have been accused of making the remarks.

The sources, however, were apprehensive whether these tapes would stand the scrutiny in the court.

The agency is likely to file its supplementary charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter in which it might give details of the conspiracy which led to the killing of the 19-year-old and three others -- Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar --in June, 2004.

CBI, which is probing the case, has been able to get detailed information about Ishrat and Javed as it included the statements of their relatives and people known to them in the charge sheet filed on July three.

It has so far not been able to reach any conclusive point on the identity of Johar and Rana. CBI has in its charge sheet neither given any details about the antecendents of the duo nor the motive of their presence in Gujarat.

CBI's charge sheet accuses seven police officers of Gujarat Police of murder, kidnapping and other related crimes under the Indian Penal Code.

On the day of the encounter, a Gujarat Police officials allegedly drove Sheikh, Ishrat, Rana and Johar from the farmhouse where they were kept in illegal custody to an empty stretch of road between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar where they were killed.