Kerala : The petitioner in the Gujarat fake encounter case that killed his son Pranesh Kumar alias Javed Sheikh, Ishrat Jahan and two others in 2004, died in a road accident on Friday.
The report by the new indian express says that Gopinatha Pillai, 77, who lost his son in the Gujarat encounter, died in an accident at Vayalar near Cherthala on National Highway 66.
Even though police has ruled out the possibilities of “targetted killing” of Pillai through the accident but they have registered a case and investigation is going on, said the Sub inspector Shajimon, as quoted by newindianexpress.com.
According to the report, Pattanakkad police has said that the accident occurred on Wednesday when a lorry rammed into the rear end of the car in which Gopinathan and others were travelling at Vayalar junction near Cherthala here. He was admitted to a private hospital in Kochi where he breathed his last on Friday, police said.
“The Maruthi car in which Pillai was travelling applied sudden break and a lorry hit the car from behind. He suffered injuries and was shifted to a hospital in Kochi. He died on Friday morning,” the report of newindianexpress.com reads.
Four persons were killed in the infamous The Ishrat Jahan encounter case including Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra in Maharashtra and three men – Javed Ghulam Sheikh (born Pranesh Kumar Pillai), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar.
The police claimed that Ishrat Jahan and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives were involved in a terroristic plot to assassinate the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Special Investigation Team found that it a fake one and charged with many officers in the force for encounter murder.
“A special CBI court discharged former Gujarat Police officer P P Pandey in the case in last February. Gopinatha Pillai filed cases regarding the murder in Gujarat court to prove his son’s innocence. He had visited Gujarat for giving evidence many times,” the report reads.
According to newindianexpress.com report the Kerala native Pranesh Kumar married a Muslim women Sajida from Mumbai in 1991 after converting to Islam. He also has two children and they often visited Gopinath Pillai at Thamarakulam, Alappuzha.
