Sohrabuddin case gives hope to Ishrat's family

More trouble appears to be brewing for the Gujarat police following the fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, as a woman in Mumbai plans to move the Bombay high court seeking the reopening a probe into the killing of her 19-year-old daughter Ishrat Jahan Raza in an 'encounter' by the state police for her alleged terrorist activities.

"No one listened to us when we had said it in 2004. But now that the truth has been exposed with the fake encounter case (of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi), we hope that proper investigations will be conducted in the matter and justice will be delivered," Shamima Raza, Ishrat's mother, told PTI.

Lashkar plot to kill Modi; four killed

The family is seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation into the case in the light of the arrest of former deputy inspector general of Gujarat police D G Vanzara in the Soharabuddin case.

Vanzara was a senior officer in the Gujarat Crime Branch when Ishrat, an undergraduate science student in a Mumbai college, along with three others, was killed in an encounter in Gujarat in June 15, 2004.

Shamima said she would be filing a petition before the Bombay high Court seeking a CBI investigation into the case soon.

The Gujarat police had alleged at the time that Ishrat and her companions were members of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayiba and were planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an allegation refuted by her family members.

"We had said that there was foulplay involved but the matter was not taken up properly by our state government which should have done more," Shamima said.

Shamima said her family, which consists of her and three other children, have had to endure trying times after Ishrat's death since she used to support the family financially by taking tuitions.

"We were promised a lot of help by many people and relatives at the time but then they all were busy with their own work and we have had to fend for ourselves," Shamima said.

Ishrat's younger sister Nushrat also feels that with Vanzara's arrest in the fake encounter case the truth about many other cases will also be exposed.

"It has now come out that all that was done at that time by the police was wrong, and hopefully we will also receive justice," Nushrat said.

"I always knew that my daughter was innocent and have been saying it all these years. A day will definitely come when we will also receive justice," Shamima said.