Ishrat case: court reserves order on Pandey, Vanzara's bail

The special CBI court here today reserved its order on the bail applications of former IPS officers P P Pandey and D G Vanzara who are accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case.
Judge K R Upadhyaya is likely to pass the order on January 28.
During the hearing today, Pandey's lawyer N D Nanawati said CBI did not arrest the former chief of Intelligence Bureau Rajinder Kumar (who is also named as an accused in the charge sheet) because of his political bosses in the previous government at the Centre.
"Who prevented you from arresting him...Only because Rajinder Kumar was backed by the political bosses of the central government of the relevant time," Nanawati claimed.

Pandey was the Joint Commissioner of police when Mumbra-based 19-year-old college girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by Ahmedabad crime branch sleuths in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004.
According to CBI, it was a fake encounter orchestrated jointly by Gujarat police and IB.

Advocate Nanawati pointed out that it was IB which had informed the police that some terrorists had landed in the state to assassinate the Chief Minister and other leaders.
"They would not have acted had there been no inputs about terrorist and (it) would not have led to the killings of innocent persons. Even criminals cannot be killed like that," said Nanawati, adding that CBI's evidence did not indicate Pandey's involvement.

He also alleged CBI had acted at the instance of IPS officer Satish Verma, who was part of the High Court-formed Special Investigation Team and who was later included in CBI probe.