The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an interim stay on the investigation
into senior IPS officer Satish Verma’s reported role in three alleged custodial
death cases in Porbander in 1996-97.
With this, a Bench of Justices H L Gokhale and Ranjana P Desai put a
temporary stop to the implementation of an April 18, 2012 order by the Gujarat
High Court to Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Shivanand
Jha to conduct the probe and submit a report to the court within three months.
The apex court also issued notice to Hiralal Shial, whose brother was one of
the three alleged victims. Verma was posted as the district superintendent of
police at Porbandar then.
Shial’s brother Jasu Gagan Shial and one Aher Ranmal Ram were reportedly
killed in police encounters, while Aher Narayan Jesti Bandhiya was found
hanging on a tree near a police station. Bandhiya was on police remand, and the
police claimed he had escaped custody and committed suicide.
The incident reached the courts as early as in 1997 when an NGO — Action
Committee for Prevention of Police Atrocities — filed a PIL in the High Court.
It had sought an investigation by the CBI into the incident involving Verma.
Shial submitted in the Gujarat HC that the inquiry had gathered dust over
the past 14 years. The state government even owned up in court that documents
related to the cases and inquiry report have gone missing.
