Indian Police Service officer (Gujarat cadre) Satish Chandra Verma, who was part of the investigation team in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has been dismissed from service, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs told Delhi High Court last week, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.
Verma was part of the High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team that had concluded in 2011 that 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in a staged encounter with security forces on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
He was dismissed on August 30, a month before his retirement on September 30. The dismissal order means that Verma would not be entitled to pension or other post-retirement benefits.
The Delhi High Court was hearing Verma’s petition against the chargesheet issued to him in September 2021 that had allowed a disciplinary authority set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs to go ahead with its proceedings.
In 2021, the High Court had ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs to not take any “precipitative steps” against Verma, reported Deccan Herald. However, on August 30 this year, the High Court allowed the ministry to implement the dismissal order.
On September 6, the ministry told the High Court that the disciplinary authority decided to dismiss Verma from service after a departmental inquiry proved the charges against him. The dismissal order said Verma was “talking to the media which dented the country’s international relations,” reported Deccan Herald.
The High Court while agreeing to implement the dismissal order also provided Verma time till September 19 to avail himself of legal remedies. On Tuesday, Verma moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s direction permitting the Centre to implement the dismissal order, reported The Indian Express.
Verma was also part of the Central Bureau of Investigation team that had established in 2013 that the encounter was fake, after which the CBI had registered a case against various police officials.
The Gujarat Police had claimed that the four had links with terrorist groups and were conspiring to kill Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time.
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