The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to put a stay on a central government order dismissing Indian Police Service officer Satish Chandra Verma, who was part of the investigation team in the Ishrat Jahan case, PTI reported.
Verma has challenged his dismissal order before the High Court. On Monday, the court told the Centre to reply to his petition within eight weeks, but refused to put Verma’s dismissal on hold.
The Union government dismissed the officer on August 30, a month ahead of his scheduled retirement. A departmental inquiry had held him guilty on a number of charges, including “interacting with public media”.
The dismissal order means that Verma would not be entitled to pension or other post-retirement benefits.
Earlier this month, the officer had moved the Supreme Court, challenging the dismissal order. On September 19, the court had stayed the order for a week, and said that it was for the High Court to decide on whether to continue the stay after that period.
Verma was part of the Gujarat 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 gunfight with security forces on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
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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