Special CBI court granted anticipatory bail to senior Gujarat cop PP Pandey in the Isharat Jahan fake encounter case on Monday. Pandey is one of the seven accused as per the CBI charge-sheet filed by the investigation agency on July 3.
The senior cop was disappeared for over two months and declared absconding by the court. Drama was created at the court campus when Pandey arrived on a stretcher from a hospital, in Shahibag area of Ahmedabad, where he was admitted on Sunday after he complained of chest pain and fever. As a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him, he has asked Pandey to appear before the court on July 31 for final hearing. The Supreme Court had ordered CBI not to arrest him and said that he should show up in court.
The 1982 batch IPS officer was heading the Crime Branch when 19-year-old Isharat Jahan and other three Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004 near Ahmedabad.As per the Gujarat Police, Isharat and other three entered in Gujarat to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and were working for terrorist organisation lashkar-e-Tayyeba. According to accused in the case, they had received information about the Isharat and her accomplices from the State Intelligence Bureau.