2 min readAhmedabadMar 29, 2016 01:23 AM IST
First published on: Mar 29, 2016 at 12:51 AM IST
IPS officer Satish Verma
In a setback to IPS officer Satish Verma, who led the investigation into the encounter of Ishrat Jahan, a special CBI court on Monday rejected his application seeking permission to inspect the second chargesheet in the case. Details of the chargesheet, filed in February 2014, have not been made public yet, but it names four officers of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), including former special director Rajinder Kumar.
Rejecting the application, special judge D R Vyas justified the CBI argument that the copy of the chargesheet cannot be given to Verma since he has no locus standi to seek it, said CBI counsel R C Kodekar. The court also held that Verma could not explain the reason for seeking the case papers.
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The IPS officer had also requested the court to allow him to look into an order of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which refused sanction to prosecute IB officers. Since then, the second chargesheet is pending in the court.
On March 11, Verma for the first time had moved the CBI court, seeking a copy of the second chargesheet, but his plea was rejected.
Later, he moved a second application, stating that the superintendent of this court “made an endorsement in the said application that the documents prayed for in the application are not part of the record of the court. Therefore, the applicant wishes to take an inspection of the records lying in the custody of this court.”
Verma had appeared as party-in-person to argue his case, saying that he was one of the three members of the Gujarat High Court-appointed SIT that probed the case and lodged an FIR with the CBI. Verma also assisted the CBI in the case following a Gujarat High Court order. He was hailed as the lead investigator behind the arrest of seven Gujarat police officers, including current DGP P P Pandey, who is posted as director, Anti-Corruption Bureau, DIG Girish Singhal and retired DIG D G Vanzara.
Eventually, Verma and the CBI parted ways on a bitter note following differences when the first chargesheet was filed in 2013.
IPS officer Satish Verma
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