Ahmedabad: Shamima Kausar, the mother of Ishrat Jahan, has said that she never imagined that seeking “truth and justice” in the “pre-planned” and “cold-blooded murder” of her daughter “could be such an uphill, arduous, life consuming and almost an impossible task”.

In a letter submitted to the CBI court in Mirzapur, Ahmedabad, which was listed for hearing on Tuesday, Shamima Kausar said, “After this prolonged fight for justice, I now feel hopeless and helpless. More than 15 years have passed, all the accused including the police officials are on bail,” she wrote in the letter.

Ishrat was killed in an encounter by the Gujarat Police on June 15, 2004, along with three others. Shamima said her daughter was a “victim of a pre-planned, fake encounter and labelled and maligned as a terrorist”.

On August 30, 2019, four more accused, namely Jaisinh Gulabsinh Parmar, Girishkumar Laxmanbhai Singhal, Tarunkumar Amrutlal Barot and Anaju Jimanbhai Chaudhary, had filed discharge applications before the CBI court in Ahmedabad, and the same was listed for arguments on Wednesday.

However, the matter was adjourned at the request of the accused. The next date of hearing is October 17.