The special court for CBI cases in Ahmedabad on Saturday reserved its order on the anticipatory bail plea of Additional Director General of Police Prithvi Pal Pandey, an accused in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case, till August 6.
The special court is hearing his application afresh on the directions of the Gujarat High Court which has restrained CBI from arresting the senior IPS officer till August 6.
Judge Gita Gopi is likely to pass the order on Tuesday.
Earlier, Pandey’s lawyer Nirupam Nanavati argued “CBI has been chasing Pandey and wanted to send him behind the bars by hook or by crook....Despite the High Court directing CBI not to arrest Pandey till August 6, the central investigation agency filed an application seeking his judicial custody.”
The CBI’s branding of his client as a proclaimed absconder (in the charge-sheet of Ishrat case) was totally illegal as Pandey appeared before the concerned court as per the orders of the Supreme Court, Mr. Nanavati said.
“It is not an error or mistake. It is a deliberate design so as to deprive Pandey of any discretionary order from seeking justice,” he said. “CBI does not want to humiliate only my client (alone) but they want to humiliate the entire police brass of the Gujarat”, he added.
“Why have they not proceeded against those officials who have more serious allegations against their name?” Mr. Nanavati said referring to omission of names of Intelligence Bureau officials Rajinder Kumar and the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner K.R. Kaushik in the charge sheet.
Contending that there was no material against Pandey, Mr. Nanavati said he was acting on IB inputs and if IB inputs were to be questioned, there may be a serious law and order problem in the country.
