AHMEDABAD: In yet another case of alleged fake encounter involving Gujarat Deputy Inspector-General of Police D.G. Vanzara (since placed under suspension), a special criminal application in the Gujarat High Court on Thursday demanded a CBI inquiry into the killing of Sadik Jamal on January 13, 2003.

The application, filed by his brother Shabir Jamalbhai Mehtar, wanted a case registered against the officers of the Detection of Crime Branch, Ahmedabad, including P.P. Pandey, who then headed the DCB; Vanzara and all other police officers "involved in the conspiracy and killing."

It sought a direction to the State Government to get the body exhumed and sent for another post-mortem. The report should be placed before the court along with the earlier post-mortem report, the forensic report and the entire case file on the FIR registered by the police.

The petitioner said Sadik, 25, had some differences with his father and left the house in 1996 for Mumbai. They were not aware of his whereabouts until they read in newspapers about the "encounter killing." About 20 days before the encounter, the District Superintendent of Police came to their house in Bhavnagar and questioned about Sadik's whereabouts. He and other members of the family were repeatedly called by the DSP for questioning and the ``harassment'' continued for about 20 days, during which the police "extracted" some written statements.

Initially, the DSP informed the family that the police were investigating a gambling case registered against Sadik in Bhavnagar on November 9, 2002. On inquiry, the petitioner found that an FIR was also registered that day in a Bhavnagar police station under the Gambling Act against Sadik. This was surprising to the family members because Sadik would have contacted them had he been in Bhavnagar.

Later the police informed them that Sadik was in the custody of the Mumbai police and they were investigating whether he was involved in any criminal activity in Gujarat. The petitioner's father informed the police of the gambling case, other than which he was not involved in any offence.

But on January 16, 2003, the DSP informed the petitioner and his father of the encounter and advised them to go to Ahmedabad to collect Sadik's body. While handing it over, Vanzara threatened his father that if he made any complaint on the death of Sadik, the other son (the petitioner) would "also meet the same fate." Because of the threat, they did not complain about the murder of Sadik, the petitioner claimed.

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