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Headley Questions Manner of NIA Recording Statement During Cross Examination

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Headley

Mumbai: Pakistani-American terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Saturday alleged that the India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not record his statements on various aspects of the 26/11 investigations in his “exact” words.

He said that on the fourth day of his ongoing cross-examination before a Mumbai special court that he had given details on various aspects to the NIA officials.

However, his statements were not read out to him, he did not seek a copy of his statement nor was it provided to him by the NIA, Headley said, raising serious doubts on the NIA statement.

Headley referred to certain statements he made to the NIA on the former terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Muzammil Bhatt and Thane collegian Ishrat Jahan who was killed in an encounter by Gujarat Police along with three other male friends near Ahmedabad in 2004.

Headley made the startling revelation during his cross-examination before Special Judge G.A. Sanap by lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan, who is defending Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes.

Speaking via video-conferencing from an unknown place in the US, Headley said that in 2003, LeT cheif Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi had introduced him to Muzammil Bhatt as a top LeT commander who had carried out the Akshardham Temple strike and Ishrat Jahan matter, of which he had prior knowledge through the newspapers.

Headley said that the NIA recorded his statements in words different from what he had told them… for instance, he (Headley) never said that when Lakhvi introduced him to Bhatt, he (Lakhvi) referred to him (Bhatt) sarcarstically that he was top commander whose every major operation had failed.

“I cannot explain why NIA did not did not record my statement in my exact words… They never read out the statement to me after recording… I did not ask for the copy and they never gave me a copy,” Headley said.

When he was shown a copy of his statement to NIA, Headley said that he was seeing it first time, but admitted that he had told NIA about an LeT women’s wing which was headed by the mother of Abu Aiman.

(IANS)

Ishrat Jahan had no terror links, says lawyer Vrinda Grover dismisses Headley’s version

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Vrinda Grover

New Delhi: Vrinda Grover, who is representing Ishrat Jahan’s family in court, on Thursday insisted that Ishrat had no terror links. She said that Headley’s statement is “extremely manipulative” and cannot be “treated as evidence” as per the Indian law. A judicial enquiry, the Gujarat High Court and the CBI all concluded that the encounter was fake.

D G Vanzara leaves jail, says 'acche din' are back

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Photo: Hindustan Times

Photo: Hindustan Times

Ahmedabad: Moments after walking out of jail after almost eight years, former Gujarat deputy inspector general of police DG Vanzara, one of the accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Ishrat Jahan’s encounter case, has said that the Gujarat Police were targeted for “extra political reasons”.

“Ache din [Good days] for me and other police officers are back,” Vanzara was quoted as saying by television channels after coming out of the Sabarmati Central Jail on Wednesday. He further added,”Gujarat Police were targeted for extra ploitical reasons.” Ache din ayenge [Good days will come] was one of the poll slogans of the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

D G Vanzara, 61, is one of Gujarat’s most controversial police officers. Earlier this month, he was granted bail in the Ishrat Jahan case, one of two “fake encounter” cases against him, on the condition that he will not enter his home state Gujarat.

He had been granted bail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh murder case in 2014. He was a Deputy Inspector General of Police when he was arrested in March 2007 and had been in jail since.

Mr Vanzara and other top police officers are accused of killing 19-year-old college student Ishrat Jahan and three others in 2004 and, in a separate case later, a petty criminal Sohrabbudin Sheikh, his wife and Tulsiram Prajapati, a key witness.

Mr Vanzara and the other police officers claim they were killing terrorists who wanted to assassinate Narendra Modi, who was then chief minister of Gujarat. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says the civilians were killed in cold blood.

Today, Mr Vanzara said, “Anti-terror operations happen in every state. But Gujarat Police was a victim of politics. It was unfairly targeted for political reasons.”

He refused to comment on a resignation letter he had written from jail in 2013, in which he accused Amit Shah, who was Home Minister of Gujarat and is now BJP chief, of being in the know of the police officers’ plans to counter the civilians, who he maintained were terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Mr Vanzara’s resignation was not accepted and he retired last year, while still in prison.

(Agencies)

Former police officer D G Vanzara gets bail in Ishrat Jahan case

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Photo: Hindustan Times

Photo: Hindustan Times

Ahmedabad/NDTV: One of Gujarat’s most controversial police officers, DG Vanzara, is likely to walk out of jail soon after he was granted bail today in the 2004 killing of college student Ishrat Jahan. But a court in Ahmedabad said he can’t enter Gujarat.

Eight police officers were charge-sheeted in the case. Four were granted bail earlier and today, two more got it – Mr Vanzara and another police officer, PP Pande.

Mr Vanzara was granted bail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case of 2005 in September.

He has been in a jail in Ahmedabad for eight years for cases that earned him the nickname of “encounter specialist”. He retired last year. He was arrested in March 2007, when he was a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the Sohrabuddin killing.

Sohrabuddin, a petty criminal, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were traveling on a bus from Andhra Pradesh in 2005 when they were kidnapped by the Gujarat police. Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed a few days later. Tulsiram, a key witness to their abduction, was shot dead a year later; the police claimed that he was trying to escape.

Mr Vanzara was also made an accused in the killing of Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old, and three men in 2004. All four were shot dead by police officers who claimed that they were involved in a plot to kill Narendra Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time.

In 2013, Mr Vanzara quit the force and shot off a vitriolic letter in which he accused Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, a former Home Minister of Gujarat, of making him and other police officers scapegoats for following their orders.

In December, a court in Mumbai accepted Amit Shah’s discharge petition and said he will not face charges in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing.

Can a defender of Ishrat Jahan ‘encounter’ represent the CBI in the encounter case in the SC?

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Justice for Ishrat Jahan

by Justice for Ishrat Jahan Campaign

For the past few months, we have been witnessing one police officer after another, jailed for fake encounters in Gujarat, being released on bail, or reinstated by the Gujarat government.  What is even more startling is the position that investigating agency, the CBI, has been taking in the courts. When the Bombay High court granted bail to N.K. Amin in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in March 2013, the CBI contested it and filed a cancellation of bail petition before the Supreme Court.

When this cancellation petition was listed in the Supreme Court on 11th November 2014, former BJP Spokesperson and current Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Pinky Anand appeared on behalf of CBI. The CBI’s U-turn in the case was striking. Whereas earlier, it had sought the cancellation of the bail, it did not do so now.

N.K. Amin, who is also an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, meanwhile filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court seeking bail in the Ishrat Jahan matter on the ground that the chargesheet was not filed in 90 days. Again, it was Ms. Anand who represented the CBI.

While no one denies the right of the accused to seek bail, fairness demands that those who have publicly defended the Ishrat Jahan encounter as genuine, and have cast aspersions on the line of enquiry being pursued by the CBI should at least not represent the CBI in this matter. Ms. Anand, in her position as the spokesperson of her party questioned the move by the CBI to take on record the letter that D.G. Vanzara wrote from the prison or to investigate the allegations made in the letter (see full video here).

It would be a travesty of justice if Ms. Anand continues to represent the CBI in an investigation she has questioned in the past. The flip-flops by the CBI in the recent days also raise fears about the independence of investigating agencies.

Released by Manisha Sethi and Mansi Sharma

For Justice for Ishrat Jahan Campaign/ 3rd December 2014.

Supporting Documents:

  1. Bail order of the Bombay HC
  2. NK Amin bail order dated 11.11.2014

(Please only refer to the latter part which deals with S.L.P.(Crl.) No. 4949/2013 which is the order passed in the Sohrabuddin case.)

I carried out the encounter of Ishrat Jahan on the orders given by my superior, DG Vanzara testified before CBI court

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Photo: Hindustan Times

Photo: Hindustan Times

Ahmedabad: Accused in many fake-encounters, Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara has spilled the beans on Friday when he testified before a special CBI court here that he carried out the encounter of Mumbai college student Ishrat Jahan on the orders given by his superior on the basis of inputs received from Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Vanzara, who has been in jail for more than seven years, made his submission through his lawyer during hearing on his bail plea. His lawyer VD Gajjar told the CBI court that the IB, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in August, had clearly mentioned that the four persons killed in the encounter were terror suspects and the claim was supported by a statement of David Headly, a 26/11 plotter. However, the CBI charge sheet contradicts Vanzara’s claim as the inputs about the terror suspects coming to Gujarat were given to then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner KR Kaushik not to Vanzara. The inputs were forwarded to Vanzara, then a DIG, through his superior Kaushik, he said.

His counsel argued that Vanzara was not aware about IB’s inputs and he only executed the operation on the instructions of his superior but the CBI did not make Kaushik an accused in the encounter case.

He further asked the court that in the FIR, CBI relied upon statements of some police inspectors, who said they took part in the encounter on the orders of their superiors. Vanzara also did the same, then why was he “framed” while his superiors were not named accused by the agency. He also questioned why IB officers were let off the hook?

“CBI had not made four IB officials linked to the case (Rajendra Kumar, Tarun Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede) accused and only Gujarat Police officers were named in the charge sheet”.

In its defence, CBI lawyer LD Tiwari said the agency had not received sanction from the Union Home Ministry, as required under Section 197 of CrPC, to proceed against the IB officers.

It is to be noted here that under the Section 197 of CrPC, no public servant can be prosecuted for an alleged offence committed during discharge of official duty without the government’s nod. Contending this, Vanzara counsel Gajjar said CBI did not opt for any such permission before naming Vanzara or any other Gujarat Police officer in the charge sheet. The court, after hearing the submissions, adjourned the matter to December 5.

It is to be recalled that Ishrat (19), a college girl from Mumbra near Mumbai, and along with three men – Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar – were shot dead allegedly by Gujarat Police near here on June 15, 2004 on suspicion that they were on a terror mission.

On the order of the Supreme Court, CBI did the probe of the encounter and found that it was cold-blooded murder in which over a dozen policemen, including IPS officers, were charged with murder and criminal conspiracy and Vanzara is one of them who got bail in another fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife. Vanzara’s submission, who was considered as a blue-eyed police officer in the then Modi-led Gujarat, may stir up hornets’ nest.

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