New Delhi, 26 July 2013

The Supreme Court today directed senior Gujarat IPS officer PP Pandey, an absconder in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, to appear before a trial court in Ahmedabad on July 29 and restrained the CBI from arresting him till then.

In another development the Gujarat High Court today ended its monitoring of probe in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari observed that as the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a chargesheet before the special CBI court, the High Court’s monitoring ended. It was the High Court which had ordered the probe by the Central agency when the questions were raised about genuineness of the encounter.

CBI lawyer Ejaz Khan told the court that investigation against some officials was still underway, and a supplementary chargesheet may be filed. Mukul Sinha, lawyer for Gopinath Pillay, Javed Sheikh’s father and one of the petitioners, however stated that the CBI chargesheet was an unfinished job, so the High Court should continue the monitoring of probe a little longer.

But the division bench said that as the magistrate’s court was already seized of the matter and a chargesheet had been filed, it was for that court to issue directions, if necessary, in future.