Guj HC issues notice to CBI on Ishrat case charge sheet

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the CBI on a petition filed by the IPS officer Satish Verma seeking a copy of supplementary charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

Justice J B Pardiwala issued the notice after the Ahmedabad District Court registry submitted that the supplementary charge sheet was not on its record as no prosecution sanction was received against four IB officials named in the charge sheet. A magistrate’s court for CBI cases had in September last year rejected Verma’s plea on the ground that the charge sheet was not part of the court record. Verma, who was a member of the SIT constituted by the Gujarat High Court to investigate the case, then moved the High Court.

He argued that he needed a copy of the supplementary charge sheet to ensure that the trial in the case began and concluded “expeditiously.”

The HC had recently rejected Verma’s plea for inspecting the first charge sheet after CBI challenged the sessions court order allowing the same.

Proceedings against the accused named in the second charge sheet are pending for want of sanction from the Union Law Ministry. These officials are former IB joint director Rajinder Kumar, P K Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede.

Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the state police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. Police claimed they were LET terrorists who had come to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi.