A fresh complaint has been lodged with the Ahmedabad police against 17 top police officers of Gujarat and Maharashtra, in connection with the fake encounter killing of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar, who was gunned down by Ahmedabad Crime Branch personnel in January 2003.

The Gujarat high Court on Thursday had handed over to the CBI the investigation into the encounter and directed the police to register a fresh FIR in the case.

The fresh complaint was lodged by Sadiq’s brother, after the original complaint was “filed” by the police for “want of evidence against any of the accused”, followed with it, he filed a petition in the High Court that led to a CBI inquiry in the case.

Among the 17 accused listed by Sadiq’s brother, it included the then Ahmedabad police Commissioner, K.R. Kaushik, the then Ahmedabad Crime Branch Chief, P.P. Pandey, and his deputy, D.G. Vanzara, already in jail in connection with the  Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter. Daya Nayak also known as ‘encounter specialist’ is also among the accused.

Though Sadiq’s brother had not named them in the complaint, he later told the media persons that the then Union Home Minister, L. K. Advani, and the Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, were also involved as he believed that the “Sadiq’s encounter” was plotted at least two months in advance to gain “political support” for Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

According to Sadiq’s brother, Sadiq had left their Bhavnagar home for Mumbai after their father, who drove an autorickshaw, for a living, had rebuked him for being booked by the police in a gambling case. A few days later, some senior police officers of Bhavnagar informed the father that Sadiq was “an operative” of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Report by Alka