M R Gopinatha Pillai, 77, father of Javed Ghulam Shaikh

ALAPPUZHA: M R Gopinatha Pillai , 77, father of Javed Ghulam Shaikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, who was killed in the encounter with Ishrat Jahan by the Gujarat police in June 2004, died on Friday after he suffered injuries in a road accident .

"The accident took place at Vayalar Junction on Wednesday morning when Pillai, a native of Charamoodu in Alappuzha, was being taken to a private hospital in Kochi by his relatives for a medical check-up," Pattanakad sub-inspector B Shajimon said.

A lorry rammed into the car in which Gopinatha was travelling. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kochi where he died today," said the SI.

A case has been registered in this regard, the sub-inspector said.

Pranesh fell in love with neighbour Sajida alias Ishrat Jahan in Pune and they married in 1995. Ishrat, a Thane resident, was 19 when she became a salesgirl in his perfume business. Her elder brother was Pranesh's friend, say sources. Just weeks later, both employer and employee were dead. Their bodies lay sprawled on a road on Ahmedabad's outskirts, near a bullet-riddled car.

Gujarat Police claimed Pranesh aka Javed, Ishrat, and Pakistanis Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani were Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives on a mission to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi.

