Ishrat Jahan case: CBI seeks more security for investigating officers

New Delhi, July 1 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked the Maharashtra government to provide more security to officers investigating the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

" We have asked Maharashtra Government to provide security to our officers," CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told media here.

Sinha also vowed to file chargesheet in the case by July 4.

"We have given assurance to Gujarat High Court that we will file our charge sheet by July 4. We will maintain time limit," Sinha told media here.

The Gujarat High Court had earlier directed the CBI to complete its probe into the police encounter deaths of college student Ishrat Jahan and three others by July 4 and file a final report.

The court also told the CBI to file the chargesheet at the earliest so that no more accused can get out on default bail, while a top official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was interrogated for his role in the alleged fake encounter killing.

The court asked the CBI to focus on the conspiracy involving the custody of the deceased, the encounter and the persons involved in the alleged conspiracy and the alleged fake gunfight in which the four persons were killed.

The court also allowed CBI's plea seeking that Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who has been assisting the CBI in the investigation, be dropped from the probe team from June 23.

The CBI earlier this month grilled Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Rajender Kumar at an unknown location in Gandhinagar in connection with his role in the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others by Ahmedabad police.

The CBI, which is investigating the case on the directive of the Gujarat High Court, wants to charge the then Ahmedabad IB station chief Rajender Kumar for conspiracy to murder.

Nineteen-year-old Ishrat was killed along with three others on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a team of Crime Branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The Crime Branch had then claimed that the four were LeT members and were on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)