His relentless fight for justice

The death of Gopinatha Pillai of Thamarakulam, Nooranad, has brought to an end a 14-year-old relentless fight for justice to his son.

Mr. Pillai’s son Javed Ghulam Sheikh (born Pranesh Pillai), along with three others, Ishrat Jahan Raza, Amjad Ali Rana, and Zeeshan Johar, were gunned down by the Gujarat Police near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

LeT operatives

They were killed in an ‘encounter’ and the police branded them as Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, who were on a mission to assassinate the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

However, Mr. Pillai, a former employee of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, did not believe the police version and soon launched a legal fight.

Mr. Pillai believed that his son and others were murdered in a fake encounter.

SIT probe

Much to Mr. Pillai’s relief, the Gujarat High Court in November 2011 observed that the June 15 encounter, which came to be known as Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, was fake based on a report filed by a court-appointed special investigation team.

The case was later handed over to the CBI. In the first chargesheet filed by the CBI in 2013, seven Gujarat Police officers were named as accused, including IPS officers P.P. Pandey, D.G. Vanzara, and G.L. Singhal.

They were booked on charges of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy.

However, the case has been dragging on since the NDA government came to power at the Centre.

A special CBI court in February 2018 discharged Mr. Pandey in the case.

The court observed that there was no evidence against him related to the kidnapping and murder of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

Although his son converted from Hinduism to Islam and married a Muslim woman, relatives said Pillai had come to terms with it long ago.

“He was living with his younger son. However, he maintained a close relationship with the family of Pranesh Pillai. He had assisted the wife of Pranesh and children to buy a flat in Pune. They also used to visit him,” said a family member.

Critic of Modi

Mr. Pillai, a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was removed as treasurer of the Kotakkattussery NSS village unit in 2013.

On hearing the death of Mr. Pillai, wife of Javed Sheikh and three children have reached Nooranad from Pune.