Following the Gujarat High Court's criticism, three senior police officers, who were involved in the alleged Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, have been transferred from their present postings from where it believed they could “influence” the investigation.
P.P. Pandey, heading the State CID (Crime); G.L. Singhal, chief of the State Anti-Terrorist Squad; and Tarun Barot, Assistant Commissioner with the Special Operation Group, Ahmedabad, were all part of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, which killed Ishrat and three others in an “encounter” on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004. According to Home Department sources, the three officers have not yet been given fresh postings, but were asked to relinquish charge immediately to their successors.
Last week, the High Court, during the hearing of an interim report submitted by the Special Investigation Team which it had set up for a fresh probe, expressed strong displeasure over the State government's failure to comply with its earlier order to transfer these officers. The court suspected that they, now holding positions of influence, could try to scuttle the investigation.
The government pleader then assured the court that necessary action would be taken before the next hearing, slated for next week.
On Sunday, during a “reconstruction” of the “encounter” carried out by the SIT, along with a team from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Mr. Singhal and Mr. Barot were made to recapture the entire episode and give an actual demonstration how the “encounter” was carried out. Another senior police officer who was also involved in the Ishrat encounter, the former Deputy Superintendent, Narendra Amin, is already in jail custody in the Sohrabuddin-Kausar Bi murder case.
