Ahmedabad, Sept. 7: Five years after she was shot dead as an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba fidayeen, a magisterial inquiry has concluded that Mumbai college student Ishrat Jahan was murdered by policemen in a “cold-blooded, pre-planned” manner to get kudos from the chief minister and earn promotions.

The probe, conducted by Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang, says the killing of Ishrat in 2004 was a “cold-blooded murder” carried out by some Gujarat policemen for petty gains.

“Ishrat Jahan was killed by Gujarat police in a cold-blooded, pre-planned way…. The police crime branch officials carried out the fake encounter for their personal gains, for promotions and other benefits. They wanted to show they were doing a great job, essentially to seek appreciation from the chief minister,” says the 243-page report written in Gujarati. The investigation was started in 2004.

Gujarat High Court has already set up a three-member committee to investigate afresh the June 2004 killing of Ishrat by the crime branch, at least three of whose officials are now behind bars for allegedly staging another fake encounter the following year.

Ishrat, then 19 and a first-year science student at G.N. Khalsa College in Mumbai, was shot dead when travelling in a car on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Also in the car were Pune-based Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Ajmal Ali Rana from Kashmir and Zeeshan Johar from Pakistan. Ishrat was apparently known to Javed, who, the police claimed, had trained in terror camps in Pakistan.

The city crime branch, then headed by the now jailed IPS officer D.G. Vanzara, had claimed that all four were Lashkar operatives on a mission to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.

Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, also an IPS officer, and Narendra Amin, the then deputy superintendent of police, were among the crime branch officers involved in the “encounter”.

All three are at present lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail for the alleged fake encounter in which Sohrabuddin Shaikh was killed in November 2005.

The metropolitan magistrate’s report says Ishrat was “illegally” picked up by Gujarat police on June 12, 2004, from Mumbai along with her friend Javed alias Pranesh. They were brought to Ahmedabad where they were killed on the night of June 14. The “encounter” was shown to have occurred on June 15.

The report mentions by name several top bosses of Gujarat police at that time, such as then commissioner K.R. Kaushik, joint commissioner (crime branch) P.P. Pandey and Vanzara. “These officers wanted to get appreciation from the chief minister which is why they planned the cold-blooded murder of Ishrat Jahan, labelling her a terrorist out to kill the chief minister,” says the report.

The findings will be placed before the high court which is monitoring the case, said Mukul Sinha, the advocate for Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar, who has been waging a long battle for justice.

Government spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas refused to comment. “I don’t have any brief about this issue. Please contact the home minister,” he said. Home minister Amit Shah could not be reached for comment.