Ishrat case: SIT to get copy of Tamang report

The Gujarat high court on Thursday approved the plea of the Special Investigating Team, probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan, seeking copy of Judicial Magistrate S P Tamang's report which had concluded that the encounter was fake.

The division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari today granted the plea of ACP V R Toliya, who had sought certified copy of Tamang's report, which is in high court's possession.

The SIT had sought the copy saying it would help the probe.

Magistrate Tamang, in his 2009 report, had said that four persons -- Ishrat, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani -- who were killed in a police encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, were not linked with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashker-e-Tayiba, as claimed by city crime branch officials.

Police had claimed the deceased were LeT terrorists who had come to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Magistrate Tamang had concluded that police officers and their subordinates had shot the four persons in "cold blood".