In a setback to Additional Director General of Police PP Pandey, a special CBI court rejected the anticipatory bail on Tuesday in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. However, the senior Gujarat cop challenged the verdict and moved to Gujarat High Court. The hearing on the matter is on Wednesday.
The 1982 batch IPS officer had gone underground for a couple of months after his name surfaced in the encounter of 19-year-old Isharat Jahan and three others. The court had also declared him proclaimed absconder. Following the Gujarat HC direction, CBI restrained from arresting him as the lower court was asked for hearing his application afresh on August 6.
Pandey was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, when Ishrat, her friend Javed Shaikh, alias Pranesh Pillai, and their associates Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were shot in a staged encounter by Gujarat crime branch sleuths on June 15, 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.