CBI court sets aside summons to IB men

AHMEDABAD INTELLIGENCE BUREAU OFFICERS CHARGED WITH MURDER MOVED COURT ON GROUND THAT THE CENTRE HAD NOT GIVEN CBI THE SANCTION TO PROSECUTE THEM

: A special CBI court on Saturday set aside summonses issued to two Intelligence Bureau (IB) officers by a magistrate court in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

Special CBI Judge JB Pandya set aside the lower court order issuing summonses to Rajeev Wankhede and TS Mittal, who worked as assistant central intelligence officers when the alleged fake encounter took place in 2004.

The duo had challenged the summonses on the ground that the central government had not given CBI the sanction for their prosecution as required under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The CBI had contended by pointing out that a court can use its discretion to issue summons even when the competent authority has not given sanction.

The metropolitan magistrate court had also issued summonses to other two IB officers — special director Rajinder Kumar and officer MS Sinha — but they have not moved the CBI court.

Whether the order of the special CBI court applies to all four IB officers will be clear only after the copy of the order is received, CBI lawyer RC Kodekar said.

The four IB officers have been charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, illegal detention and kidnapping.

Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old college girl from Mumbra near Thane, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh, Amzad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Ahmedabad police on the outskirts of the city in June 2004.

The police had then claimed that they were terrorists affiliated to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.