In a case related to appointment of Gujarat’s in-charge DGP PP Pandey, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday reserved its order. Pandey is an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and currently he is out on regular bail.
The hearing on a Public Interest litigation filed by former top cop Julio Reberio challenging the appointment was completed following arguments of both the parties. A court of Chief Justice Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi reserved the order in the PIl that challenged Pandey’s appointment.
Appearing for the State Government, Additional Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta said the PIl should not have been entertained as it was a service matter and instead be taken to the concerned tribunal. Mehta further argued that Pandey being the senior most IPS official, he has only been given an additional charge and that his promotion is not for a regular post.
On the other hand Rebeiro’s advocate I H Syed said that Pandey did not merit additional charge too as he is an accused in the case and there was a likelihood of him tampering with the evidence in the pending trial. It was also argued that with Pandey holding position of top cop, he could also end up influencing several of his juniors who have and need to testify when the case of encounter is being heard.
The stated Government on its part had earlier in a written submission before the court said that this was unlikely as the investigation in the case was done by the CBI and not state police. The government also cited that there no conditions set in his bail order that he cannot be given promotions or cannot be made in-charge DGP.
Four persons including Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillay, Amjadali Akabarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the alleged fake encounter with Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.