Magistrate's probe based on files from govt closet

AHMEDABAD: The probe report on fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang is entirely based on police investigation papers which were already in the custody of the government. The principles on which this inquiry, under Section 176 of CrPC, is based is atreatise called 'Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology' written by Dr Jaisingh P Modi.
The chief metropolitan magistrate handed over three files with 1,100 pages containing Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and post-mortem reports, statements recorded by police and report by a sub-divisional magistrate conducted in 2004.
Tamang's conclusion that Ishrat, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad Ali Rana alias Salim and a juvenile Zeeshan Johar were killed in cold blood derives heavily from the post-mortem and FSL reports.
The magistrate has in great detail analysed forensic reports to conclude that all four were killed from a close range and not from a distance of 70 feet as is the crime branch version. The ballistic report of five bullet wounds on Rana, 11 gun shots on Johar, 16 on Pillai's body and injury marks on Ishrat's body have been interpreted with citations from various authorities on medical jurisprudence.
The report explains how Ishrat and the other three had not fired a single round from 9 mm pistols and AK 56 recovered from their bodies. The hand-wash taken by forensic experts shows no signs of lead and nitrate, which should have been the case had they fired.
The post-mortem report reveals presence of rigor mortis in the bodies, as well as half-digested food in stomachs to show that they were killed within hours of dinner taken on June 14 evening. The magistrate concluded that Pillai was killed before 9 pm, while Rana, Johar and Ishrat were shot dead between 11 and 12 the same night. These claims were duly substantiated by the magistrate by quoting various paragraphs from numerous editions of 'Modi's Medical Jurisprudence'.
These led Tamang to question the FIR and information provided by the city crime branch that the encounter took place in the early morning of June 15. Holding that the FIR was false and police claims regarding intelligence inputs from sources as well as Intelligence Bureau were bogus, Tamang concludes that the four were already in police custody much before they were killed. The only witness examined is Pillai's father Gopinath Pillai who deposed before him on September 3.