Ishrat case: Senior Gujarat IPS officer declared absconder

A Special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad on Friday declared Gujarat IPS officer P P Pandey an absconder in the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of the special CBI court H S Khutwad today passed an order proclaiming Additional DGP (Crime) P P Pandey an absconder under section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He has also been directed to appear before the court by July 31 to avoid further action.

Pruthvipal P Pandey, a 1982-batch IPS officer, has been made an accused in the fake encounter case for providing "so-called crucial intelligence inputs" to fellow policemen that Ishrat and three others were LeT operatives and were on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

He was joint commissioner of police of the city heading the crime branch when on June 15, 2004, Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Earlier this month, CBI filed an application before the court demanding that Pandey be declared an absconder and initiation of action against him under section 82 of the CrPC on the ground that he was evading arrest despite a warrant issued by the court on May 2.

Pandey is the second Gujarat IPS officer, after G L Singhal, who has been made accused in the case.

After the issuance of warrant for his arrest, Pandey had moved Supreme Court seeking direction to quash FIR against him in the case and give relief against his arrest.

However, the Supreme court, on June 11, rejected his petition and asked him to seek relief from Gujarat high court.

Though he has not filed any petition in the high court so far, he has written a letter to the special CBI court complaining about the partisan approach of the central agency in the investigation.