HC admits Jamal’s 2003 ‘fake’ encounter case

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday accepted the prima facie case of the fake encounter of Sadik Jamal in 2003. It admitted a petition of his brother Shabbir beseeching a CBI probe into the incident and registration of criminal offences against police officers D G Vanzara and others involved in the case.

While admitting the petition, justice A S Dave fixed October 7 as the final date of hearing in the matter.

Sadik (28), a resident of Bhavnagar had died in what the police described as an encounter that took place around midnight on January 13, 2003, opposite Galaxy cinema in Naroda Patia, on the outskirts of the city.

Pointing out loopholes in the police version of the encounter, the petitioner pointed out that while the police claimed that Sadik had opened fire on the police using a 0.32 calibre revolver, the cartridges recovered from the site were of 0.38 bore, and that the same has been corroborated in the FSL report.

While after every encounter, a magisterial inquiry under provisions of Section 176 of CRPC was conducted to find out the cause of death, no such inquiry was done in this case, the petitioner said.

He said the police had also claimed before the media that Sadik was a dreaded terrorist and had come to the city to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi, VHP leader Pravin Togadia and several others, but these things were totally missing in the FIR.

He said it was surprising that no one heard sound of gunfire from the place of the incident, even though the police had claimed it had shot 11 rounds.

According to the petition, Sadik, who was facing problem because of his involvement in some gambling cases in Bhavnagar, had contacted Mumbai-based journalist Ketan Tirodkar for help. Ketan introduced him to Mumbai encounter specialist Daya Nayak, but the latter apparently handed him over to Gujarat Police in January 2003.

The petition further said that Sadik was brought to Gujarat and kept in bungalow no. 15 at the police colony in Shahibaugh from January 3 to January 13. He was allegedly shot dead on January 13 midnight. Advocate Mukul Sinha is representing Sadik in the court.

(Source)