More trouble for PP Pandey?

IPS officer PP Pandey, declared absconding in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, could be in for more trouble, this time for his role in the Sameer Khan Pathan encounter case. The Special Task Force (STF), which is investigating the case, recently recorded the statement of Sahista Khan, to whom Sameer had expressed his fear of being eliminated.

Sahista and Sameer had been arrested in the case of murder of a constable and kept in the custody of Detection of Crime Branch, headed by Pandey then.
In his statement, Sahista mentioned that he was with Sameer in police lock-up.
He added that Sameer had told him in October 2002 that he would be eliminated by DCB officials. He was killed on October 22 while in crime branch custody.

Sahista opened up before the STF investigators during the last few days in custody.  The STF will soon record the statement of another person, identified as Saidu – who was arrested by Rajkot police and brought to the city for a narco test on October 21, 2002. Sources said that Saidu was present in the police lock-up on the night when Sameer was allegedly taken to Usmanpura for the staged encounter.

Sameer, a small-time chain snatcher, was arrested for the murder of a police constable by DCB. He was later killed in an encounter by suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara and deputy superintendent of police Tarun Barot along with other cops. The encounter is currently being probed by STF headed by retired justice HS Bedi.