The Gujarat High Court Tuesday discharged retired deputy superintendent of police Irshadali Saiyed who was accused in the alleged fake extrajudicial killing of Sadiq Jamal on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in January 2003. With Saiyed’s discharge, the last of the accused has been discharged in the alleged fake encounter killing.

At the time of the encounter, Saiyed was a police inspector at the crime branch and was accused of allegedly firing at Jamal. An Ahmedabad special CBI court had refused to discharge Saiyed in December last year.

Highlighting that those who had allegedly conspired had already been discharged in the case, Saiyed submitted before the court of Justice Gita Gopi that he was not part of the conspiracy. No motive was attributed against him in the charge sheet, he added. A detailed court order remains to be made public.

On December 2012, the CBI had filed the first charge sheet against eight Gujarat policemen — then police inspector of crime branch Tarun Barot, police inspector J G Parmar (who was abated following his death), police inspector I A Saiyed, retired DSP K M Vaghela, inspector R L Mavani, police sub-inspector G H Gohil, and constables Ajaypalsingh Siyaram Yadav and Chhatrasinh Manubha Chudasama.

A special CBI court in Ahmedabad had discharged Yadav and Mavani in November 2020, Barot and Chudasama in February 2021, and Gohil in December 2022, while the HC discharged Vaghela in February this year.

Sadiq (28) was killed on the intervening night of January 12-13, 2003 at Naroda near Galaxy cinema after an intelligence input forwarded by the Gujarat Police linked him allegedly to Salim Chiplun, an aide of gangsters Anees Ibrahim (Dawood’s brother) and Chhota Shakeel. The alert had said the “Dubai-based” Sadiq had been allegedly sent by the Lashkar-e-Taiba to kill then Deputy PM L K Advani, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.

As per the CBI’s investigation, Sadiq was apprehended in Mumbai by the Mumbai police and was interrogated by officers of Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, Mumbai in December 2002.

Subsequently, on January 2, 2003, according to the CBI, the Gujarat police had travelled to Mumbai to take him in custody. Thereafter, he was brought to Ahmedabad, kept in illegal confinement and killed.