The Gujarat High Court today reserved its order on a PIL by former top cop Julio Reberio challenging the appointment of P P Pandey, an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, as DGP in-charge after hearing arguments of both sides.
A court of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi reserved the order in the PIL that challenged Pandey's appointment as he is an accused in the alleged fake encounter case and is currently out on regular bail.
Appearing for the state government, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the PIL should not have been entertained here as it is a service matter and should be taken to the tribunal concerned.
Further reiterating his submission made to the court in earlier hearing in writing, Mehta said Pandey has only been given additional charge as he is the senior-most IPS officer and the his promotion is not for regular post.
Former Gujarat and Punjab DGP Rebeiro had filed the petition.
Appearing for Rebeiro, I H Syed said Pandey did not even merit additional charge because of his being an accused in the alleged fake encounter case.
He maintained that the position given to the accused raises the likelihood of his tampering with the evidence in the pending trial.
The government had earlier stated in a written reply before the court that investigation in the case is done by the CBI and not state police, and such apprehension therefore bore no merit.
The government justified the appointment by claiming that Pandey was the most suitable IPS officer for the in-charge DGP's post because of his seniority.
Replying to the main contention of PIL about the possibility that Pandey may hamper the investigations against him by influencing the witnesses, the government claimed that no such thing has happened after he has been made the in-charge DGP.
The government further told the court that no where in his bail conditions it was mentioned that he can not be given promotions or cannot be made in-charge DGP.
Pandey, an accused in the case, was jailed after CBI, which is investigating the case, named him in a charge sheet along with other police officials in the encounter case.
After being released on bail, Pandey was taken back in the
service in February last year and was made the director of Anti-Corruption Bureau.
On April 16, he took took over as in-charge DGP of Gujarat following unexpected transfer of incumbent P C Thakur to Delhi.
Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillay, Amjadali Akabarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
Gujarat Police had then claimed that the four with links to Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba had come to the city to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi.
