After evading the law for over a month, Gujarat Additional Director-General of Police Pruthvi Pal Pandey may finally face arrest in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.
The Gujarat High Court on Monday rejected his petition seeking quashing of the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Pandey, however, has the option of approaching the Supreme Court.
He was alleged to have passed on “intelligence inputs” to his colleagues that 19-year-old Ishrat and three others were Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives out to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Pandey was the Joint Commissioner in the Ahmedabad Crime Branch when the four were gunned down by Crime Branch sleuths in June 2004.
The 1982 batch IPS officer was summoned by the CBI. But he failed to show up and was declared an absconder on June 21.
However, he moved the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR. But the court maintained that the FIR spoke of cognisable offences, including criminal conspiracy and murder, and could not be quashed.
Advocate for victims Mukul Sinha said, “The investigating agency should immediately arrest Mr. Pandey and extract vital information which will enable them to take the investigations further and examine the role of other people involved.”
The CBI is scheduled to file its final report in the fake encounter case to the High Court on July 4.
