Centre curtails Ishrat probe officer's tenure in NEEPCO

New Delhi: The tenure of IPS officer Satish Verma, who was earlier a member of Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jahan case, as Chief Vigilance Officer of NEEPCO has been curtailed by the Centre.

The services of Verma be placed at the disposal of Home Ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

He was in August 2014 appointed as the CVO in North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) -- a mini-ratna company-- for initial period of three years.

The action against Verma comes after the officer was served show cause notice twice, both in May this year, over alleged "misconduct" and "unauthorised absence" from duty.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the proposal for curtailment of tenure of Verma from the post of CVO, NEEPCO, Shillong, the order said, without mentioning the reason.

Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, was part of a three-member SIT appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jehan encounter killing case.

He took a different line from the other two members and filed an affidavit in the High Court that the encounter killing could have been staged and also raised doubts over Ishrat being a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He was served in early-May a notice seeking clarification for being "absent" from duty "unauthorisedly" and travelling without permission, official sources said.

A few days later, Verma was served another notice as he failed to comply with earlier one in which he was given 10 days to submit his reply, they said.

Verma in an interview to the media some time back had disputed the claim that Ishrat, who hailed from Mumbra near Mumbai, was a terrorist. He also claimed that the encounter was staged.

Ishrat Jahan, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh along with two suspected Pakistanis -- Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were gunned down by Gujarat crime branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004.

Police officials claimed that they were LeT terrorists who had planned to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Verma was also part of the CBI team whose investigations resulted in charge-sheeting of four IPS officers, including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal and Rajinder Kumar, retired Special Director of Intelligence Bureau, among others.