Ishrat case: Gujarat IPS officer P P Pandey suspended

Ahmedabad, Aug 18: Gujarat government on Sunday suspended senior IPS officer P P Pandey, who was earlier remanded in CBI custody in Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case, four months after he went underground.

"An IPS officer, who is in jail for more than 48 hours, is deemed to be suspended," a senior government official said. Pandey is currently an Additional Director General of Police.

He went underground in April this year after his name surfaced in the probe into the Ishrat case, while filing an appeal in the Supreme Court seeking protection from arrest.

However, the apex court asked him to appear before the special CBI court.

After his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the CBI court, the High Court, as well as the Supreme Court, he surrendered before the CBI court on August 13.

On Saturday, the court remanded him in CBI custody for interrogation till August 21.

He was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) in Ahmedabad when Mumbai-based Ishrat Jahan and three others were gunned down by city crime branch sleuths on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had then claimed that they were terrorists but CBI later concluded that the four were killed in a fake encounter.

PTI