Manoj Joshi: Who will give justice to Kausar Bi?

Last week DG Vanzara a former Gujarat police officer accused in the killing Ishrat Jehan and her associates as well as Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati returned to Gujarat after his bail conditions were modified to permit him to reenter his home state Instead of slinking home as most people accused of murder would be wont to Vanzara returned to a rousing reception where he danced waving a silver sword presented to him by his family and announced that he would be entering public life Two days later he participated in a new year event in Ahmedabad where RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and senior BJP leaders were presentFormer IPS officer DG Vanzara dances with a sword during a welcome ceremony thrown by his family and community in Gandhinagar on April 8 PicPTIFollowing his release Vanzara said ldquoDelhi knew about the encounters which were based on the inputs provided by the Intelligence Bureau officials still the antinationals of the country falsely created these casesrdquo Former IB special director Rajendra Kumar who was supposed to have passed on the information has denied that the IB was in any way involvedIshrat Jehan Javed Shaikh Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were shot dead in June 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad allegedly by a police team led by Vanzara The police claimed that Ishrat and her associates were LeT operatives on their way to kill Modi Whether Ishrat was indeed a member of the LeT is a matter of controversyIn 2009 a magisterial probe ruled that the encounter had been staged The decision was challenged by the state government and taken to high court which set up an SIT whose report in 2011 broadly confirmed the magisterial report and which led the CBI to file its first chargesheet in an Ahmedabad court saying that the alleged killings had been done in cold bloodBut the Ishrat killing was not the only one Vanzara had been involved in He had been arrested in 2007 for the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh a gangster in yet another fake encounter in 2005 Investigations revealed that Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi had been arrested from a bus traveling in Maharashtra Sohrabuddin was a wellknown criminal but after his death inspired reports sought to paint him as an ISI agent who was trying to kill Modi The key witness to his killing another criminal Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in yet another allegedly staged encounter a year later in 2006As for Kausar Bi we were initially told she disappeared But accounts suggest that she was held in custody in two different farm houses and eventually strangled to death and cremated near Vanzararsquos home village of Illol This information was conveyed by the Gujarat government counsel to the Supreme Court in 2007In September 2012 the CBI filed a charge sheet in a Gujarat court against 37 accused including Amit Shah current president of the BJP and various police officers including Vanzara Within months of the BJP coming to power in New Delhi Shah was discharged in the case Subsequently some other of the accused were discharged and Vanzara was given bailThe hawkish narrative in the cases is not bothered about the genuineness of the alleged encounters that led to the deaths of Ishrat or Sohrabuddin The suggestion is that since Ishrat mdash an LeT agent mdash and Sohrabuddin mdash an ISI operative mdash were plotting Modirsquos death they got what they deservedBut what about Kausar Bi No one but no one says she was LeT or for that matter a criminal or horror of horrors a conspirator to kill Modi She was a housewife who was travelling with her allegedly criminal husband No encounter has been alleged in her case Is she lsquocollateral damagersquo Was she killed because she was the wife of a bad man If yes then you can argue parents spouses and children of terrorists are fair game and maybe next you could say that hisher community are also fair targetKilling a human being has been a serious business in all societies and civilisational progress has been measured by the latitude provided for it In olden days a king or a feudal lord could order an execution at will In modern India the Supreme Court has decreed it to be the ldquorarest of rarerdquo penalties Under our law only the judiciary can order a killing and that too after due process No one not the President DG of police the Army chief or even the prime minister and most certainly never the police or the socalled lsquoencounter specialistsrsquo can kill someone with impunity Exceptions are provided in designated areas for the armed forces by a special law but only in exercise of their dutySadly in the blood thirsty climate of our times not many will be bothered by the illegal executions of lsquoterroristsrsquo like Ishrat and Sohrabuddin But surely someone should spare a thought for the hapless Kausar BiThe writer is a Distinguished Fellow Observer Research Foundation New Delhi