New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the plea of absconding senior Gujarat Police officer PP Pandey seeking quashing of FIR against him in Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
Pandey, whose lawyer failed to appear before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, after failing to get relief from the High Court in the case approached the apex court for quashing the FIR against him.
Pandey was chargesheeted by the CBI accusing him of being part of the conspiracy to eliminate Ishrat Jahan and three others. The CBI failed to trace him after Pandey went on long leave. They approached the court to declare him an absconder.
Pandey was Joint Commissioner of Police when on June 15, 2004, Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
A day before the encounter, Pandey, along with suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara and IB officer Rajinder Kumar allegedly planned details of how the killing will take place. As head of the Crime Branch that carried out the operation, Pandey allegedly directly supervised actions of Vanzara and others, and even directed how the first FIR must be filed before the encounter.
