AHMEDABAD, June 18: The Gujarat High Court today directed CBI to streamline its investigation in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case and file a charge sheet by July 4.
The court also ordered that Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who is one of the officers investigating the case, be sent back to the state from June 23.
A division bench of justice Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari told CBI that there was considerable delay in the investigation and filing of the charge sheet resulting in the accused being released on bail.
“This needs to be streamlined and the agency is directed to file the chargesheet in this case by July four so that no other accused gets the benefit of bail due to lapse of time,” the bench said.
Commenting on the manner of investigation conducted so far by the investigating agency, the court said CBI needs to concentrate on the genuineness of encounter instead of other aspects like the status of the persons who have lost their lives in the encounter.
“We just want to ensure that the investigation remains on track so that the truth can be unearthed,” it said.
On utilisation of services of state cadre IPS officer Satish Verma by CBI, the court said sufficient time was given to CBI to avail the services of Verma.
“We direct that his services to CBI will be available only till June 23 and from the next date, he shall report back to the state government,” the court further said.
The court has also ordered CBI to file a compliance report by July 26 when the next hearing of the case is scheduled.
CBI, on the instruction of the High Court, had taken over the probe of the alleged fake encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a state Crime Branch team led by DIG D G Vanzara.
CBI was also pulled up by the court for its failure to arrest Gujarat cadre IPS officer P P Pandey who has been evading arrest since May 2 in spite of special CBI court issuing an arrest warrant.
CBI lawyer Ejaz Khan today made a request to the court that it should direct the state government to assist the central agency to nab Pandey.
On this, Justice Abhilasha Kumari, coming down heavily on the agency, said “this is enough. The more you disclose, the more we are getting impatient that in spite of being a premier probe agency of the country, you are not able to perform your task and nab an accused (Pandey).”
Pandey has been made an accused in the fake encounter case for providing “crucial intelligence inputs” to fellow policemen stating that Ishrat Jahan and three others were Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror outfit operatives who were allegedly on a mission to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Pandey was the city’s Joint Commissioner of Police heading its crime branch when the encounter took place.
Meanwhile, during the hearing, CBI also apprehended that the state government might take vindictive action against Satish Verma for his assistance to CBI in the investigation which led to the arrest of seven police officers of the state.
The court then ordered Gujarat government not to initiate any action against Verma in connection with his functioning as an investigating officer in the case.
“To allay the apprehension, we are directing the state government that so far as the functions of Satish Verma as an investigating officer in this case is concerned, no action will be taken against him without permission from the court,” the bench ordered.
Verma had been at loggerheads with the state government since he was included in the Special Investigation Team(SIT) constituted by the court in this case.
During the hearing held on Friday last, the high court had rapped CBI by asking it to ascertain the genuineness of the encounter instead of focusing on IB inputs and trying to figure out whether those killed were terrorists or not.
Five Gujarat policemen, accused in this case, were granted bail as the central agency failed to file its charge sheet against them within 90 days of their arrest.
Suspended IPS officer G L Singhal, Tarun Barot, J G Parmar, Bharat Patel and Anaju Chaudhary were given bail because of the delay in filing charge sheet in the case.
Another Gujarat policeman, suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police N K Amin, was arrested by CBI in the case on April 4.
Last month, CBI arrested Vanzara (prime accused in Sheikh Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing case) who is now lodged in Sabarmati jail under judicial custody following his five-day custodial interrogation.
CBI had also summoned and grilled Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar in the Ishrat case twice with regard to the inputs generated about four ‘terrorists’ entering Gujarat to kill Narendra Modi.
Besides, the agency had also examined former DGP of the state K R Kaushik who was Police Commissioner of the city when the 2004 encounter took place.
CBI had also examined Special Public Prosecutor at City civil and sessions court Sudhir Brahmabhatt who was then a public prosecutor. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel