Ahmedabad, Sep. 8 : Refuting to subscribe to the observations made in the Tamang Report about the alleged ‘fake’ encounter of four persons in 2004, the Gujarat Government has decided to challenge the report.

In a news conference, Jaya Narayan Vyas, Spokesperson and Minister of Health in Gujarat, said: “ Normally, in the process of tenet justice an opportunity will be given to the accused to present their stand. But in this case, a judicial magistrate has not given any chance to the accused.”

“The Committee was asked to give the report around November 2009 but the committee submitted it within a month of its constitution.”

“The report quoted the Cr PC 176 of the IPC to probe this incident. But the 176 allows only the custodial deaths and it was not a custodial death. How can they probe under this clause? None of the sub clauses mention about probing for the encounters, so we will challenge the whole report. Hence, it is not valid for us,” said Vyas.

The Central Home Ministry’s report says that Ishrat Jahangir and her partner were involved in plans to carry out terror strikes in Gujarat and Maharashtra, he added.

A few days after the incident, a section of media (The Hindu and Times of India) carried out a news report stating that Ishrat and the others killed belonged to their organisation, said Vyas.

According to the Tamang Report that was submitted, four persons-- Ishrat, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani--killed in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004, were not linked with the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashker-e-Toiba, as claimed by the police.

Gujarat Police had claimed that the four were LeT terrorists and were on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The report says the police officers and their subordinates shot down the victims in "cold blood using their service revolver".

It further said the encounter was "planned" and executed "mercilessly" by shooting the victims from "close range". Even the autopsy report said the death of the four were due to bullet injuries, it added.

The report alleged that police officers including the then city police commissioner K. R. Kaushik, then JCP (Crime Branch) P. P. Pande, suspended DIG D G Vanzara, then ACP G L Singhal, and ACP N K Amin had planned this encounter for their selfish motives.

The report said the motive for senior police officers was to get promotion, to secure their positions, to falsely show their work as the best, to impress the chief minister and receive his praise.

The report further refused to subscribe to the theory of the police by offering counter-points.

According to the report, not a single cop was hurt in spite of police''s claim that the alleged ''terrorists'' fired multiple rounds at them. Not even a single tree or vehicle in the vicinity of the encounter was hit by a bullet. The alleged terrorists'' pistol found at the spot was rusted and looked like it had not been used for a while. (ANI)