Gujarat IPS officer G L Singhal, key accused in Ishrat Jahan case, gets promotion

In May 2014, Singhal was reinstated with promotion as Deputy Inspector General. (File)

The Gujarat government Tuesday promoted IPS officer G L Singhal, who is out on bail in 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, to the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP). Singhal’s name figures in the list of six IPS officers and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank officers of 2001 batch who have been promoted to IGP.

Singhal is among the key accused in Ishrat Jahan encounter case who was arrested by the CBI in 2013. He was granted default bail after the central probe agency didn’t file chargesheet in the stipulated time. In May 2014, Singhal was reinstated with promotion as Deputy Inspector General. Singhal gave damning evidence to the CBI in Ishrat case which included two pen drives containing 267 voice recordings that had suggested the illegal surveillance of woman under the orders of then minister of state for home Amit Shah, now BJP president, allegedly acting at the behest of a “saheb.”

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Vipul Aggarwal, currently posted in Ahmedabad as additional commissioner of police (administration), has also been promoted to IGP. Aggarwal was involved in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case from which he was discharged. In this case, a special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted all the accused last month.

The other officers promoted is J R Mothaliya, additional commissioner of police (Traffic), Ahmedabad. Mothaliya is part of Supreme Court appointed-Special Investigation Team which probed the 2002 post-Godhra riots. The other officers are MA Chawda, Range IG, Gandhinagar and D N Patel, Additional commissioner of police, sector-2, Surat city.

The state government has also promoted Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma from 1986 batch to the rank of Director General of Police.