Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has asked
the state government to take decision within one month on an
inquiry report about two IPS officers, one of them an SIT
member in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, for the alleged
inaction against an accused in Gossabara RDX landing case.
The RDX landing case is connected to serial blasts in
Mumbai in 1993.
The order was passed recently by the division bench of
Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya and Justice J B Pardiwala
while hearing a PIL seeking action against the two officers
-- Satish Verma and Atul Karwal -- for their alleged failure
to act against Abdul Sattar Abdul Habib Hamdani alias `Sattar
Maulana`, accused in the RDX and arms landing case.
The PIL, filed by senior lawyer and former MLA Yatin Oza,
has also sought action against police inspector Sukhdevsinh
Zala, and a CBI inquiry into the case.
Next hearing in the matter is scheduled for June 27.
Additional Director General of Police (Administration),
Pramod Kumar, had been asked to conduct inquiry in this
matter, and he has submitted his report.
The court said if any departmental action was to be taken,
it should be taken, preferably, within a month.
Verma is a member of high-court appointed special
investigation team which is probing Ishrat Jahan encounter
case. Yesterday, the Supreme Court had stayed the
investigation by the SIT.
Oza alleges that Verma, Karwal and Zala did not arrest
Abdul Sattar Abdul Habib Hamdani alias `Sattar Maulana`, an
accused in the 1993 case.
In November last year, a special TADA court had acquitted
17 accused in the Gossabara case, for lack of evidence. The
judge had observed that neither any weapon nor RDX was
recovered by the police, and the entire case was based only on
statements.
The accused were charged with involvement in landing of
huge cache of explosives and arms that were allegedly used in
carrying out serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993.
PTI
