Ishrat case: IPS officer seeks modification of bail condition

Ahmedabad, Aug 5: Gujarat IPS officer Girish Singhal, an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case, on Tuesday approached a special CBI court here seeking modification in his bail condition.

Special CBI court judge Geeta Gopi today issued a notice in this regard to CBI and posted the hearing in the matter on August 14. Singhal submitted in his plea that the condition of bail which restricts him to remain in Gujarat should be reconsidered.

He has further prayed in his application that he should get back his articles like cell-phone and a tab which were seized by CBI when he was arrested last year in the case relating to the killing of a Mumbai-based college student Ishrat Jahan and three others in an alleged fake encounter.

Jahan, along with three others Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, was killed by a team of city crime branch on an empty road stretch between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on June 15, 2004. The probe agency had, at the time of Singhal's arrest, seized cash worth Rs 3.61 lakh, six mobile phones, pen drives, one tab, one laptop, two USB multimedia storage devices from him.

In February 2012, Singhal was suspended by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi-led state government after he was arrested by CBI in connection with the encounter case from his post of Superintendent of Police in Kheda district. Following his arrest and suspension, Singhal had tendered his resignation from the Indian Police Service (IPS) and alleged the state government had failed to protect him.

However, it was not accepted by Gujarat government citing technical issues. However, he was reinstated by the state government as a Group Commandant in the State Reserve Police (SRP) on May 28 this year. A pen-drive seized from Singhal had spilled the beans on the alleged snooping of a Bangalore-based young architect woman in 2009 by Gujarat government.

Some of the audio tapes purportedly show top state ministers and law officers had allegedly tried to derail the probe in the fake encounter case.

PTI