Wednesday, September 5, 2012

State moves SC against Verma’s inclusion in Ishrat encounter probe

The Gujarat government has moved the Supreme Court against inclusion of IPS officer Satish Verma in the Ishrat Jahan encounter probe. On July 13, the Gujarat high court had ordered the government to spare Verma’s services for four months to join the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2004 encounter case. The senior cop was ordered to join the probe on Monday as demanded by the CBI.
    Verma was one of the special investigation team (SIT) members and aggressively probed the case. He was also the first to come out declaring the encounter as fake.
    Sources said that the government has challenged the HC’s July 13 order. However, this order was merely an implementation of the original order passed by the division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari on December 1, 2011. The original order about Verma’s inclusion on demand by the CBI has not been challenged.
    The state government had objected to the IPS officer’s inclusion in the SIT too. Fearing Verma’s aggressive probe, the suspected cops in this case had moved court demanding the CBI investigation. During the final stage of hearing of Ishrat’s mother’s plea, even the state government withdrew its resistance against a CBI probe.