Journalism of Courage
The Gujarat High Court Monday dismissed a petition of additional DGP P P Pandey,who had sought to quash the FIR registered by the CBI against him in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Harsha Devani,while dismissing the petition,said it could not be entertained because Pandey,despite being a senior IPS officer,had gone absconding. The Bench also ruled that the FIR could not be quashed at a belated stage when the CBI was about to file chargesheet.
Pandey was recently declared an absconder in the case after he did not produce himself before CBI despite summons.
A senior IPS officer of Gujarat-cadre,Pandey was the chief of Gujarat CID (Crime) before he went absconding.
In his petition,Pandey had pleaded innocence,saying he had got intelligence inputs on the movements and plans of those killed in the encounter and had forwarded the same to his subordinates. He also claimed he was not at all responsible for day-to-day functioning of the Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB),which had killed Ishrat Jahan,her friend Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two others in an allegedly staged encounter on June 15,2004.
Pandeys petition was opposed by Shamima Kausar and Gopinath Pillai,the mother and father of Ishrat and Javed,respectively.
Justice Devani dictated her judgment on the petition in open court on Monday.
The CBI had registered a new FIR in the case in 2011,which Pandey had sought to quash.
