Sadik encounter: Guj court refuses bail to accused cop

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of a Gujarat police official who is one of the main accused in the case relating to the killing of Sadik Jamal in an alleged fake encounter with state police in 2003.

Special Judge K B Gujarati, while rejecting the bail application, noted that "prima facie Sadik was taken from Mumbai by Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot on Januaray 3, 2003 and Sadik was last seen with him before he was killed in cold blood".

Barot, arrested by CBI on September 26 last year, had sought bail after the filing of the chargesheet against him.

CBI says in the chargesheet that Barot brought Sadik from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and later, when Sadik was killed, Barot was a part of the police team which had carried out the encounter.

Barot has been charged under the sections 302 (murder), 120(B)(criminal conspiracy), and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code.

Barot's bail plea, filed through advocate Rohit Verma, said he had been falsely implicated and there was no direct statement or document which could suggest his involvement in Jamal's death.

Jamal, a resident of Bhavnagar, was killed in encounter by Gujarat police in Ahmedabad on January 13, 2003. But the genuineness of the encounter became an issue after former journalist Ketan Tirodkar filed an affidavit before a court in Mumbai that he was witness to Jamal's hand-over to Gujarat police by the 'encounter specialist' officer Daya Nayak of Mumbai police.