CBI seeks Satish Verma’s services for Ishrat probe

Ahmedabad: This bit of news will send shivers down the spines of all Gujarat police officers accused in Ishrat Jahan encounter case - the Mumbai girl was killed by Gujarat cops on this day eight years ago.
The CBI has written to Gujarat government seeking IPS officer Satish Verma's services to help probe the 2004 Ishrat encounter case. Verma is set to return to the investigation , after his line of probe upset the state government which then targeted him by ordering that investigation into two Porbandar encounter cases against him be put on a fast track.
A member of former special investigation team (SIT) set up by Gujarat high court in the Ishrat case, Verma pursued the case so aggressively in 2010 that the 13 suspect cops moved the HC demanding CBI probe.
Following differences with other members of the SIT, Verma filed an affidavit on January 27 last year that the encounter was a staged one and that he had evidence to prove so. He also highlighted how the state machinery was at work to hinder the probe.
When investigation was transferred to CBI in December last year, HC had directed the state government to spare his service whenever CBI wanted it. “The state government shall spare the services of Satish Verma as and when so desired or required by CBI for helping CBI to provide clues for further investigation or any other matter related thereto,” the order reads.
Six months into the probe, CBI has finally sought Verma’s assistance and dashed off a letter to the Gujarat chief secretary to depute him on the case for six months.
Ishrat and three others were shot dead near Kotarpurwater works on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004, in an operation by the city crime branch. After the encounter , all four were dubbed as Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives out to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.
Vanzara faces charge in another encounter
Mumbai: An accused in the 7/11 Mumbai serial train blasts case has approached Bombay High Court seeking judicial inquiry of the encounter of a person called Mohammad Ali in 2006 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and the role of suspended DIG of Gujarat police, D G Vanzara, in it. Ethesham Siddiqui, the petitioner, claims he had seen Ali in ATS custody a day before he was killed in encounter on August 22, 2006.
“Ethesham, who is an accused in the July 11 train blasts case, was also present at the ATS office for interrogation. He was put up in the same lock-up as Ali. Former DIG D G Vanzara, who was with Gujarat ATS then, questioned both Ethesham and Ali in relation with another case,” Ethesham’s lawyer advocate Naima Shaikh said.