Petition seeks contempt action against then Home Minister for concealing facts.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider a petition seeking closure of all criminal proceedings against Gujarat police officers in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan 'fake' encounter case on the basis of a testimony given by 26/11 Mumbai attack accused David Headley that Ishrat Jahan and her three companions were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives on a mission to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
In an urgent mentioning, a Bench of Chief Justices of India T.S.Thakur and Justice U.U. Lalit told advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, who filed the petition, that "it will be listed” in due course for hearing.
The signal to hear this petition came even as the Ministry of Home Affairs agreed to dig up files on the 2004 case to verify former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai's reported claims of political meddling in it.
Mr. Sharma's petition sought the Supreme Court to initiate “suo motu perjury/contempt of court proceeding against the then [Union] Home Minister and CBI director for concealing true facts before the Supreme Court and Gujarat High Court for filing a false affidavit on the facts about Ishrat Jahan."
Mr. Pillai had said that an affidavit submitted in the Gujarat High Court in 2009 about LeT links of Ishrat Jahan and her accomplices was changed at the “political level.”
The then UPA government had submitted two affidavits — one that the four, who were killed in an alleged fake encounter, were terrorists and the second saying there was no conclusive evidence — within two months in 2009.
Headley testimony proves those killed were LeT members: petition
DELHI: Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, in his petition in the Supreme Court, seeking closure of all criminal proceedings against Gujarat police officers in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, said the “judicial facts and evidence” supplied by 26/11 accused David Headley through videoconference in the special court in Mumbai on February 11 proved that the four persons, including Ishrat, killed by the police were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The then UPA government had submitted two affidavits —one that the four, who were killed in an alleged fake encounter, were terrorists, and the second saying there was no conclusive evidence — within two months in 2009.
“The said facts are now undisputed/judicial facts. It is a judicial fact that all four persons including of Muslim girl/lady Ishrat Jahan killed by the Gujarat state police are terrorists... there is no prosecution under the Constitution as well as any Indian law for killing a terrorist,” the petition said.
Gujarat Police personnel, including the then DIG D G Vanzara, are facing trial in a Mumbai court for their alleged role in the encounter.
Mr. Sharma’s petition said that Article 21 of the Constitution – protection of life and personal liberty – does not extend to “terrorists”.
The petition asked the Supreme Court to issue a “proper writ direction declaring that killing a terrorist is not an offence under the Indian law."
It also sought the Supreme Court to direct that “proper compensation be provided to the state police personnel in the interest of justice."
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