ISHRAT JAHAN CASE: EXGUJ TOP COP PANDEY DISCHARGED FOR WANT OF EVIDENCE
AHMEDABAD : A special CBI court Wednesday discharged former Gujarat in-charge director general of police, PP Pandey, in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others in which he was an accused.
Judge JK Pandya upheld Pandey’s application, accepting his contention that two witnesses gave contradictory statements and 100 others did not name him.
In its charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named Pandey, six more police officers, and four Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials as accused in the case related to the alleged extrajudicial killing.
Ishrat, a 19-year-old college girl from Mumbra, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were killed by Ahmedabad crime branch officials on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004. Pandey was then the head of the city crime branch.
Gujarat police claimed the four were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists and out to kill then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
The CBI had named Pandey in the charge sheet without obtaining the mandatory sanction from the Centre, Pandey’s lawyer told the court. His elevation in 2016 as the in-charge DGP — with the case against him still pending — was also presented as one of the grounds in his favour.
Following his discharge, Pandey told mediapersons, “I have faith in judiciary. It took a long time, but it’s been done.”
Pandey resigned in April last year after his appointment was challenged in the Supreme Court. He retired shorty thereafter.