Satish Verma seeks Ishrat case charge sheet from Gujarat court

IPS officer Satish Verma, who probed the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, today filed an application before a special CBI court here seeking copy of a supplementary charge sheet.
His lawyer Rahul Sharma said he wanted the copy so as to initiate further legal action against the accused named in it.
The second charge sheet in the Ishrat case names four Intelligence Bureau officials including Rajinder Kumar. The proceedings against them are pending before the CBI court for want of sanction for the prosecution by the Centre.
Verma's application says he has reason to believe that denial of prosecution sanction "suffers from illegality".

The interviews by witness R V S Mani and Rajinder Kumar make him believe that "a serious and concerted attempt is being made to cause miscarriage of justice" and "to negate or weaken the evidence... To wrongfully shield the accused."
Mumbra-based Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had claimed these four had links with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, and had planned to assassinate the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Recently, former home secretary G K Pillai alleged that references to Ishrat as an LeT operative were removed from an affidavit filed by the Home Ministry when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister.

Verma, currently chief vigilance officer of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, Shillong, was a member of the SIT constituted by the Gujarat High Court to probe Ishrat case.
The SIT concluded that it was a fake encounter, following which the high court handed over the case to CBI. Verma also assisted CBI in the investigation; the then under-secretary in the home ministry Mani recently alleged that Verma tortured him to sign a false statement.