Ishrat case: Court reserves order on cop's bail till July 9

A special CBI court, hearing the bail application of suspended IPS officer N K Amin in connection with the 2004 "fake encounter" of Ishrat Jahan and three others, on Saturday reserved its order till July 9 after completion of arguments by both the sides.

Suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police N K Amin had filed a bail application citing "incomplete charge-sheet" through his advocate Ruturaj Nanavati in the special CBI court in Ahmedabad on July 4, a day after the central investigation agency filed its first charge-sheet in the case.

The CBI on Saturday argued it had filed a complete charge sheet in the case.

In his application, Amin claimed CBI, which is probing the encounter, failed to file a charge-sheet against him within the stipulated 90 days of his arrest and the document filed on July 3 by the central agency was "incomplete".

"CBI's charge-sheet is defective and incomplete as it does not conform to rules prescribed under Section 173(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Non-compliance of rules on the part of CBI allows Amin right to seek benefit of default bail under Section 167(2)," said Nanavati.

He also cited another provision in the Section 167(2) of CrPC under which an accused is entitled to seek bail if the investigating agency does not provide relevant documents and other evidence on the basis of which he has been named in the charge-sheet within a stipulated time.

CBI argued it has filed a complete charge sheet before the court and submitted all documents which are pending verification.

However, Nanavati told the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate H S Khutwad that the agency had sought time for submitting the additional documents.

CBI had arrested Amin on April 4 this year after his release on bail in another encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh.

Earlier, five policemen-accused in the case -- G L Singhal, Tarun Barot, J G Parmar, Bharat Patel and Anaju Chaudhary -- were granted bail as CBI failed to file charge-sheet within 90 days of their arrest.

As per the charge-sheet, Amin, along with Barot, another DySP, abducted Ishrat Jahan, a Mumbai-based teenager, and her associate Javed Shaik, alias Pranesh Pillai, from a toll booth in Anand district two days prior to their killing on June 15, 2004 near Ahmedabad.

He is also accused of firing shots at Ishrat, Javed and two alleged Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana. All four were killed allegedly by Ahmedabad Crime Branch in what CBI claimed was a staged shootout.

Image: Ishrat Jahan