Ishrat Jahan’s mother allowed to be party to DGP P P Pandey’s discharge plea

AHMEDABAD: A special CBI court on Saturday allowed Shamima Kauser, the mother of the slain Ishrat Jahan, to become party to the discharge application filed by Gujarat in-charge DGP P P Pandey, who is one of those accused of her 2004 killing, allegedly in a fake encounter.
Special CBI court judge J K Pandya allowed Kausar’s plea, in which she sought permission to join proceedings on Pandey’s application, requesting the court to drop charges against him.
During the hearing of the plea, Kausar’s advocate I H Syed argued that in such cases, the victim’s kin can approach the court and oppose the discharge application.
Meanwhile, the CBI did not file its reply to Pandey’s discharge application as asked for by the court earlier. The agency sought more time to file its reply. Following this, the court granted time till February 2 and scheduled a further hearing on the same day.
Pandey has sought discharge from the case arguing that the CBI chargesheet does not reveal his role. Moreover, the government has not sanctioned the cop’s prosecution in this case.
The absence of government sanction to prosecute police officers was the reason for the discharge of various IPS officers in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Pandey became the last accused person to be arrested by the CBI in July 2013. He evaded investigators and was declared an absconder by the court. He surrendered only after the Supreme Court refused to grant him protection from possible arrest in this case, in which four persons including Ishrat Jahan, were gunned down by personnel of the city crime branch on June 15, 2004.