Court rejects Verma's plea seeking Ishrat case charge sheet

Ahmedabad: A special CBI court here on Monday rejected the application moved by IPS officer Satish Verma seeking supplementary charge sheet filed before the court in connection with the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

The court rejected the application stating that it was not in a position to provide the charge sheet as it had not taken cognisance of the charge sheet sought by the officer, who had probed the case.

Verma had moved the court on Friday seeking the copy of the supplementary charge sheet so that he could initiate legal action against the accused named in it. Verma, as a member of SIT, had investigated the encounter case of Ishrat and three others.

CBI counsel RC Kodekar told PTI that the court rejected the application moved by Verma on the ground that it had not taken cognisance of this charge sheet.

"The court stated that the charge sheet had not come on its record and also that Verma being the third party in the case could not ask for the copy," he said.

Advocate Manish Oza, appearing on behalf of the Verma, said he had filed the application for certified copy of the charge sheet which was sent to the court concerned which sent it back.

"The court has returned the application, but we will move the court of the Principal District Judge PR Patel for the copy of the charge sheet," he said.

The second charge sheet filed by the CBI had named four Intelligence Bureau officials, including Rajinder Kumar, who were charged with murder and criminal conspiracy, and proceedings against them are pending before the CBI court for want of prosecution sanction by the Centre.

"Verma had sought the copies of the charge sheet from the court to take further legal action, so that the case can move forward," his lawyer Rahul Sharma said.

In the first charge sheet filed by CBI, they had named seven Gujarat police officers as accused, including IPS officers P P Pandey, DG Vanzara and GL Singhal.