This Article is From Aug 18, 2013

Ishrat Jahan case: Gujarat IPS officer PP Pande suspended

Ishrat Jahan case: Gujarat IPS officer PP Pande suspended

File photo of PP Pande

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Saturday suspended senior IPS officer PP Pande, who was earlier in the day remanded to 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.

Mr Pande 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 Jahan fake encounter case, while filing an appeal in the Supreme Court seeking protection from arrest.

However, the top 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.
.