Gujarat high court on Thursday gave a free hand to senior IPS officer Satish Verma to investigate the controversial Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
Gujarat high court on Thursday gave a free hand to senior IPS officer Satish Verma to investigate the controversial Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The court also assured Verma that he could interrogate and arrest any person if there was adequate material available for the same.
The Thursday’s ruling by the bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari came during the hearing of the progress reports submitted by the members of Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday.
Verma, who is part of the three-member HC-appointed SIT probing the Ishrat case, was given the investigation charge after SIT head Karnail Singh was allowed by the court to relinquish his duties.
Singh had informed the court that he could not contribute to the SIT work any more as he had been transferred to Mizoram and he was not allowed by the Mizoram government to spare time for the probe.
After allowing Singh to relinquish his responsibilities, the high court bench also separated the assignments of the investigation between Verma and other member, Mohan Jha.
While assigning the duties to the two officers, Justice Patel said: “Verma will look after the actual and further investigation of the case while Jha will conduct the administrative work of the SIT.”
On this, Jha urged the court that he had done investigation and recorded statements of 206 witnesses in the case.
On this, justice Patel said: “The demarcation of duties has been done with a view to streamlining the probe, not on the ground that any officer is working or not working.”
The court also gave Verma the discretion to choose any officer who is not connected with the case, for his assistance and directed the government to spare such officer for his help in carrying out the probe.
On Thursday, Verma again urged the bench to allow him to register a fresh FIR in the case. However, the court said that the decision could be taken only after the reports of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were given to the SIT.
The court clarified “there is one FIR existing and Verma can interrogate and arrest people that may be required based upon the material available with him.”
The high court ruling over the assignment of duties is highly important in the case because Verma is seriously working on the case and his line of investigation has already given a jolt to the police officers under scanner in the case.
Verma, who is considered to be a tough cop in the police fraternity, has already given shocks to many people by doubting the genuineness of the encounter of Ishrat and three others.
About a month back, he conducted a raid in the office of the FSL Ahmedabad and recovered crucial material related to the case. On Sunday last, when the SIT did the reconstruction of the Ishrat encounter at Kotarpur, Verma played a key role.
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