A special CBI court has discharged two former police officers – Ex DSP Tarun Barot and Chhatrasinh Manubha Chudasama, who were accused in the extrajudicial killing of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar in 2003, The Indian Express reported.
In response to the discharge pleas of two other policemen accused in the case, CBI had stated in November 2020 that the accused cops could not claim relief as they allegedly “conspired, kept in illegal confinement and eventually killed the Bhavnagar youth in cold blood.” However, the court almost immediately discharged P.L. Mawani and A.S. Yadav, noting lack of evidence and contradicting their earlier statement.
The CBI court discharged police officers Barot and Chudasama on a similar note. The court order made public on Monday ruled that “nothing on record to support allegations of involvement of these two applicants… None has said so and nothing is on physical record to show that they have gone to Mumbai to take custody of Sadiq.” Barot was a police inspector with the crime branch and Chudasama was a police constable, at the time.
Sadiq was accused of planning to kill the then chief minister Narendra Modi, among other saffron leaders, to avenge the 2002 riots. A CBI probe found that the Gujarat police took his custody and brought him to Ahmedabad, kept him in illegal confinement and killed him in a fake encounter on January 13, 2003.
In December 2012, CBI had filed the first chargesheet against eight Gujarat policemen – Barot, the late J G Parmar (then police inspector who will be abated), I A Saiyed (then police inspector), K M Vaghela (retired DSP), R L Mavani (inspector), G H Gohil (then police sub-inspector), and constables Ajaypalsingh Siyaram Yadav and Chhatrasinh Manubha Chudasama. Of these, three now remain to be discharged.
