The Gujarat High Court will hear the plea of Additional Director General (ADG) of Police PP Pandey on Monday seeking quashing of FIR against him in the 2004 Ishrat Jhan encounter killing case.
Pandey, a 1982 batch officer, was declared as an absconder in the case by a special CBI court and was booked under Section 82 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), as per a news report.
The court also directed him to appear before July 30 failing which further action can be taken against him.
Pruthvi Pal Pandey, a 1982-batch IPS officer, has filed the petition through his lawyer Manav Mehta. CBI is probing the allegedly fake encounter killing on the High Court’s order.
Hearing on Pandey’s petition is likely on Monday.
The FIR alleges he provided the “so-called crucial intelligence inputs” to the fellow officers which said that Ishrat, a college student, and three others were LeT operatives and were on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Pandey, as the Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, was heading the crime branch when Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of city on June 15, 2004.
Pandey has claimed in the petition that Rana, Shaikh and Johar were “terrorists” and were killed in a “genuine encounter” and hence he should not be made an accused.
He also alleges Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who has been directed by the HC to assist CBI in this case, was “bent upon” framing him because of “personal animosity”.
Earlier in June, Pandey had moved the Supreme Court, but it asked him to seek relief from Gujarat High Court.