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The Gujarat government on Tuesday rejected the S P Tamang report which concluded that Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in a fake encounter in 2004 and said it would challenge it in a higher court.
"Magistrate Tamang's report is bad in law, and he has overstepped his jurisdiction by submitting his report even before a high-level committee appointed by the high court to probe the matter could do so," Gujarat government spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas said.
"The report prepared by the magistrate is beyond the jurisdiction of section 176 CrPC (inquiry by magistrate in to cause of death) and will not stand legal scrutiny," Vyas claimed at a press conference in Ahmedabad.
Quoting the Union government's affidavit in the Supreme Court, he said it clearly stated that Ishrat and the other three were Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives and were planning terror strikes in Gujarat.
Magistrate Tamang's report, submitted on Monday, said the encounter in which 19-year-old college student Ishrat Jahan and three others were gunned down in 2004 was fake and executed in "cold blood" by police officers for selfish motives.
They were allegedly plotting to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The report of the investigation conducted by the magistrate had accused senior police officers of "staging" the encounter.