Delhi HC upholds dismissal of IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma who probed Ishrat Jahan encounter case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 24

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by former IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma, who assisted the CBI/SIT in its probe into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, challenging the Centre’s order dismissing him a month before his scheduled retirement last year.

“We find no merit in the writ petition… Writ petition is dismissed,” said a Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva.

Verma – who was last posted as the Inspector General of Police, CRPF Training College in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu—probed the 2004 Ishrat Jahan case between April 2010 and October 2011. Based on his investigation report, a Special Investigation Team concluded that the encounter was “fake”.

Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai, and three others, were killed in an alleged staged encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The deceased were dubbed as LeT terrorists who were accused of having plotted to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The MHA dismissed him from service on August 30 last year – barely a month before his scheduled retirement on September 30, 2022 -- following a departmental inquiry that proved the charges against him, including that of interacting “with public media”, during his tenure as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), Shillong. Verma had moved the High Court after the Supreme Court declined to interfere in the matter but allowed him to file a plea before the HC.

The top court had on September 19, 2022 stayed for a week the Centre’s order to dismiss him and said it was for the high court to consider if the stay or vacation of dismissal order should continue. A week later, the high court had refused to stay the Centre’s order dismissing him from service. (With PTI Inputs)