Declare P P Pandey an absconder: CBI

CBI has requested the court to declare Pandey a proclaimed absconder under section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Under this section,Pandey’s properties can also be attached if the court grants the permission,which is likely to be announced on Thursday.

Pandey has been evading the arrest warrant issued against him by the court since April 25. CBI had told the court that Pandey didn’t turn up despite two summons.

Pandey was Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP),Detection of Crime Branch,in 2004 when 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan,Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai,Amjadali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in an alleged stage-managed encounter. Before he disappeared,Pandey was holding the charge of CID (crime).

So far in the case,CBI has arrested six accused policemen,including IPS officer G L Singhal,D G Vanzara,DSP Tarun Barot,N K Amin,J G Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary. Singhal,Barot,Parmar and Chaudhary got bail since CBI couldn’t file the chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days from their arrest.

Vanzara and Amin were arrested much later and are in judicial custody. Barot and Parmar are also in jail in connection with the Sadiq Jamal Mehtar encounter case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),which is probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case,summoned Gujarat’s former DGP K R Kaushik on Wednesday to appear before the agency. The CBI wants to grill Kaushik to get more evidence about the conspiracy in the case. The CBI,sources said,felt the need to call Kaushik for the questioning after interrogating D G Vanzara recently .

Sources said CBI wanted to know why the conspiracy in the encounter case was hatched. Kaushik would be grilled by CBI whether he received the intelligence input,generated by Central IB official Rajinder Kumar,15 days before the encounter as alleged by the Crime Branch in their original FIR filed on June 15,2004. CBI will also interrogate Kaushik whether Kumar had informed him about the encounter a month in advance,as alleged by G L Singhal,another accused in the case. Kaushik,who works at a top corporate oil refinery in Jamnagar now,was the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner during the encounter.