Ishrat Jahan case: Gujarat DGP seeks report from CID on PP Pandey

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Director General of Police has sought a report from state CID on senior IPS officer PP Pandey, declared absconding in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case. "We have asked CID-Crime to send us a detailed report on Pandey and on receiving it we will talk to state Home department which will decide further course of action," DGP Amitabh Pathak told.

However, the state Home Department was non-committal on whether state government was going to take any action against Pandey -- who is the Additional Director General of Police -- for his absence from duty for the last four months. "We have to wait till state DGP sends his report," Principal Secretary (Home) S K Nanda told. Pandey, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was the Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, when Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by Crime Branch sleuths on June 15, 2004. Terming the encounter as "fake", CBI has charged seven Gujarat policemen, including Pandey with murder and criminal conspiracy. The special CBI court has declared him `proclaimed absconder`. He appeared before the trial court on July 29 after Supreme Court directed him to remain present while rejecting his petition seeking quashing of FIR against him. Last week, upon CBI`s request, DGP instructed all district and city police chiefs to keep a tight vigil to trace him. As CBI tightened its noose in Ishrat case, Pandey stopped attending his office as the state crime branch head in March, and went on medical leave. Pandey did not get his leave extended or explained his absence thereafter, Home Department sources said. On July 29, he appeared before the court on a stretcher from a private hospital here where he had been admitted for chest pain. For a few days, he attended court in wheel-chair; but again went missing when his applications for exemption from the appearance in the court and for anticipatory bail were rejected by the special CBI court here on Wednesday. Next day, the CBI court issued non-bailable arrest warrant, and the High Court too rejected his appeal challenging denial of anticipatory bail. The top cop then approached the Supreme Court, which would hear his appeal tomorrow, but has not offered him protection from arrest in the meantime. PTI