New FIR filed in Jamal case

Fear of facing contempt of court proceedings, Ahmedabad police crime branch on Monday late evening filed new FIR in the alleged fake encounter of bicycle thief Sadiq Jamal in January 2003. However, complaint registered by the police names no cops in the FIR against the 17 cops name mentioned by Sadiq's brother Shabir, who has been fighting a legal battle for justice since 2007.

"We have registered the complaint and forwarded it to the central agency CBI for further probe as per the Gujarat high court order," joint commissioner of police, crime branch, Mohan Jha told HT.

However, Shabir is likely to approach Gujarat HC seeking to insert names in the FIR. On the other hand, Gujarat government is considering approaching the apex court challenging the high court order directing CBI probe in the case.

Recently, justice MR Shah of Gujarat high court ordered CBI probe in this alleged staged shootout case, holding that the circumstances in which the person was bumped off by the police raised certain questions on the veracity of the encounter. The court held that no inquiry was conducted after the encounter.

After the encounter, police team led by DG Vanjara, now in jail as one of the prime accused in Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter cases, had claimed that Sadiq was associated with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, which tasked him to target BJP leader LK Advani, Narendra Modi and VHP leader Dr Pravin Togadia.

In his complaint, Shabir had named 17 cops including former DGP K Chakravarthy, former Ahmedabad police KR Kaushik, central IB joint director Rajinder Kumar and Mumbai police encounter specialist Daya Nayak, who had allegedly handed over Sadiq's custody to Ahmedabad police before his encounter.

This is for the first time that Rajinder Kumar's name has figured in the encounter case in Gujarat. Kumar was head of central IB team in Gujarat from 2002 to 2005 and is accused to have conspired with Gujarat police in several such dubious encounters.

His role is also under scanner in controversial encounter case of Mumbra girl Ishrat Jahan and three others, which is being probed by a three-member special investigation team formed by Gujarat HC.