Date:04/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/04/stories/2007050404681200.htm

National

Gujarat encounter has echoes in Kerala

Dennis Marcus Mathew

KAYAMKULAM (Kerala): The controversy over fake encounters in Gujarat has rekindled the hope of one man in the quiet little village of Thamarakulam in Kayamkulam, 60 km from here, who wants to prove that his son, who was shot dead in an "encounter" in Gujarat, was not a terrorist.

M.R. Gopinathan Pillai's son, Pranesh Kumar, who changed his name to become Javed Sheikh, was among the four alleged terrorists shot dead on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The group, which the police said comprised Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, was allegedly on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Javed, according to the police, was driving the blue Indica car that carried the alleged LeT operatives. Ishrat Jahan Raza, the teenager from Mumbai, was killed in the same encounter.

Mr. Pillai, a former employee of the Bharat Heavy Electricals, still does not believe that his son was a terrorist or one who would help terrorists. "For that matter, I believe that the entire encounter was faked," he told The Hindu here on Thursday.

Planning to approach Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Home

Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Friday, Mr. Pillai says that all he wants is his son's name to be cleared of the `terrorist' tag. "I have never believed what the police said about him. His nature was not one that would have anything to do with terrorism," he said.

He also has his explanations for Pranesh Kumar's conversion to Islam and for the reports that Pranesh had two passports. "He converted to marry the Muslim girl from Pune he fell in love with. He then got a job in Dubai, but since his old passport was in the name of Pranesh Kumar, he got a new one using the ration card he had in Pune. And that is not something difficult in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai," Mr. Pillai claims. The incident has left its scars on the entire family. While Mr. Pillai, a widower since 1999, had to face questions from all over, the situation was worse for Pranesh's wife Sajida and their three children Abubacker, Sadaf and Moosa.

"Sajida was not given a job in the same school where she was teaching earlier while Abubacker was not given admission in any school in Pune. It took more than a year for Sajida to get a job and we had to bring the child here for his initial education. It was only last year that he went back to his mother," Mr. Pillai says.

The aging father, who lives alone, points out that he is yet to get a death certificate for his son. "There are lots of loopholes in the police version. I know getting a lawyer to fight the case in the Supreme Court is too costly for me. But let's see, I will try my best to get my son's name cleared of that tag," he says, showing his collection of newspaper reports, magazines and other publications that have carried one report or the other on the `Ahmedabad encounter'.