SC stays probe against Verma
IPS officer Satish Verma, who was Porbandar SP in 1996-97, had moved the
apex court against a recent high court order to probe two encounters and a
custodial death
The apex court has stayed Gujarat High Court’s order to
investigate two alleged encounters and a custodial death case that took place
in 1996-97 in Porbandar district. Supreme Court’s Justice H L Gokhale and
Justice Ranjana Desai on Monday issued an interim stay on Gujarat High Court’s
order directing probe in Jasu Shiyal encounter case in Porbandar. Satish Verma,
the then SP of Porbandar, had moved the apex court against the HC order.
In April, Justice Anant Dave of the high court has
asked additional director general of police (law and order) Shivanand Jha to
conduct the probe and submit a report to the court within three months. The
court has also ordered an inquiry into the earlier inquiry report that was
reportedly untraceable.
One Hiralal Shial had sought independent probe in these
deaths. Shial’s brother Jasu Gagan Shial and one Aher Ranmal Ram were killed in
police encounters, while Aher Narayan Jesti Bandhiya was found dead hanging on
a tree beside a police station. The third person was on police remand, and cops
claimed that he escaped custody and committed suicide.
After the death of three persons in separate incidents,
a group known as Action Committee for Prevention of Police Atrocities moved the
High Court in 1997 and sought a CBI probe into the matter. It had alleged that
the three persons were liquidated by police under stewardship of then Porbandar
SP Satish Verma.
Further the group had alleged that Verma used to resort
to fake encounters to liquidate people after falsely implicating them as
hard-core criminals.
