At a glance: Ishrat Jahan case continues to haunt Narendra Modi

New Delhi, Jul 3: In India, numerous encounters take place every year. Some of them make national headlines while most of them remain buried in police files. Very rarely, a police encounter becomes a political tool against a serving Chef Minister. Ishrat Jahan encounter is one of those rare cases that has become a thorn in the flesh of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Ishrat Jahan encounter case has always been debated extensively in media with Modi's opponents terming it a fake encounter case. Recently, this encounter once again caught national headlines when the CBI interrogated IB officials for their alleged complicity in this case. The matter turned so serious that IB chief himself lodged his unhappiness with no less a person than the Prime Minister himself. So what is this Ishrat Jahan encounter case and how is it related to Narendra Modi? Let's have a look at the entire story: Ishrat Jahan encounter took place on June 15, 2004 and involved killing of four people by Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch on a road between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The four victims who died in the encounter were Ishrat Jahan Raza, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar. Initially, all the four people killed were alleged to be Lashkar-e-Toiba militants. A team headed by DIG D G Vanjara executed the encounter. Later, Vanjara was sent into custody for his involvement in Sohrabuddin encounter case. The police claimed that all the four people were plotting to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In 2004, a Lahore based publication associated with LeT asserted that Ishrat and other three people were linked with LeT but later on the claim was rejected in 2007 by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of LeT. In 2009, Ahmedabad Metropolitan court termed the encounter as fake and staged. Gujarat Government challenged this verdict in Gujarat High Court. The state government claimed that the policemen involved in the encounter were not given a chance to put their point forward and the case was heard one sided. In 2010, some media reports claimed that David Headly, the LeT terrorist involved in Mumbai terror attacks had confessed that Ishrat was associated with LeT. Later, these claims were proved to be false by NIA. An SIT (Special Investigation Team) was formed to further investigate the case. The SIT termed the encounter as fake. In the wake of adverse SIT report, a complaint under section 302 of IPC was filed against 20 policemen, including a senior IPS officer, who were part of this encounter. A CBI investigation was ordered into this case that is still continuing.Let's have a look at some of the photographs of Ishrat, her family and the encounter: