Riot ghosts catch up, ex-top cop to be politely eased out of CBI

Pande, a 1970 batch Gujarat cadre officer, was the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner during the riots and joined the CBI in March.

When contacted, Pande said he was ‘‘not aware’’ of the move and that he would be happy to work in any post the Government deems fit.

The Home Ministry’s intervention comes at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a PIL opposing Pande’s appointment to the ‘‘sensitive’’ position. Especially when the CBI itself is probing a Gujarat riot case and is likely to be given other cases for investigation.

In the PIL filed by Citizens for Justice and Peace, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati told the apex court that Pande wasn’t dealing with any of the Gujarat riot cases in the CBI. And that since a controversy has been raised over his appointment to the CBI, the Government had decided to move him out.

The apex court, accordingly, adjourned the case by six weeks giving time for the Government to act on this undertaking.

Pande’s exit has created an unprecedented and an ironic situation for the Central Vigilance Commission.

Just eight months ago, the CVC had cleared his appointment and now it’s expected to clear his exit from the CBI.

Officials say the CVC Board—it comprises the Central Vigilance Commissioner, the CBI Director, the Home Secretary and Secretary (Personnel)—may convene as early as next week to select, among others, one or two officers for the rank of Special Director—for which Pande had become eligible.

While the Government may try to camouflage Pande’s imminent exit from the CBI as a routine promotion, sources said, the signal that the officer was being moved out for his role in the riots is clear and loud.

In August, Pande had deposed before the Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the riots and claimed that he couldn’t recall the details of the meeting he attended which was called by the Chief Minister on February 27, 2002—the night of the Sabarmati attack. Questioned on the agenda of that meeting, Pande had said that the state government ‘‘had not discussed preventive steps to be taken to counter any attack on minorities.’’

When asked about the Gulbarg Colony massacre, Pande had claimed he had never met former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive on February 28. He was told that Jafri’s wife had, in her affidavit to the commission, said that Pande had assured her help.

More recently, a delegation of Gujarat MLAs is understood to have appealed to Congress President Sonia Gandhi asking for his removal from the CBI.

Pande is thus expected to shortly move up the IPS ladder, but to a ‘‘non-sensitive’’ organisation.