CBI set to file preliminary charge-sheet in Ishrat Jahan case

IANS/New Delhi

They also said the agency may seek more time to probe the conspiracy angle.

Jahan was a Mumbai college girl who along with Pranesh Gopinath Pillai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar was killed by Gujarat police in a shootout in Ahmedabad in 2004.

The preliminary set of formal charges may focus on those who are alleged to be directly involved in the suspected staged shootout and not on the conspiracy behind it.

CBI director Ranjit Sinha told reporters here yesterday the agency will file a preliminary charge-sheet by July 4.

“We have given an assurance to the high court that we will file the charge sheet by July 4. We will maintain that,” Sinha said.

He said the agency has written to the Maharashtra government and the federal home ministry to provide more security to officers investigating the shootout case.

Asked if the charge-sheet will name former Gujarat minister Amit Shah, Sinha said he could not comment on individuals.

CBI officials said the preliminary charge-sheet was likely to name the officers alleged to be directly involved in the incident and the agency will file a supplementary charge-sheet on the conspiracy angle in the killing.

The CBI has also questioned Rajendra Kumar, an Indian Police Service officer and IB official, in the case. Officials said he was unlikely to be named in the preliminary charge-sheet as an accused.

Rajendra Kumar was with the IB in Gujarat when the shootout took place.

Officials, who did not wish to be named, said the larger conspiracy behind the killings was still being probed.