The Central Bureau of Investigation is yet to take a decision on whether there is sufficient ground to challenge the recent court order granting bail to Gujarat cadre IPS officers D.G. Vanzara and P.P. Pandey in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
“The order is being scrutinised legally to ascertain if we can challenge it in the higher court. We are yet to receive the legal opinion,” a CBI official said.
A Special CBI court in Ahmedabad had granted bail on February 5 to Mr. Vanzara and Mr. Pandey. Mr. Vanzara, an accused in a couple of other encounter cases as well, retired from service as Deputy Inspector-General of Police last June when he was in Sabarmati jail. Mr. Pandey is an Additional Director-General of Police.
Both the officers have maintained that the encounters were genuine and all those named in the Ishrat Jahan and other encounter cases were innocent.
