Final hearing in another staged shootout case begins

GANDHINAGAR - The final hearing in the killing of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba militant who was killed in 2003 in a staged shootout by the state police, began in the Gujarat High Court Friday.

In the partly heard matter, advocate S.H. Iyer who appeared for the petitioner Shabbir Jamal, made his submissions by reading the FIR in the open court.

Interestingly, a senior advocate who appeared for one of the respondents objected reporting of the case in the media, which was rejected by the single judge, Akil Kureshi.

Jamal was killed in Naroda area of the city Jan 13, 2003 in a police staged shootout. City crime branch officials had gunned him down claiming that Jamal had first opened fire on them. However, no policeman was injured in the incident while Jamal’s body was found with three bullets in the head and four in the chest.

The police version was that Jamal had hatched a plot to kill Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.

A Mumbai-based journalist Ketan Tirodkar, however, claimed before a court in Mumbai earlier that Jamal, who worked as domestic help based in Dubai, was handed over to the Gujarat Police “just to oblige a top Gujarat politician”.

Mumbai crime branch official Daya Nayak had handed Jamal over to the Gujarat Police at Borivli National Park accusing him of being a militant.

Tirodkar had alleged that Nayak, instead of helping Jamal, who was victim of the 2002 Gujarat riots, portrayed him as an agent of the Dawood Ibrahim gang on a LeT mission to eliminate Modi and others.

Justice Kureshi partly heard the case Friday and has kept further hearing Aug 6.