- Delhi High Court stays it; Satish Chandra Verma approaches Supreme Court
- When the Ishrat case was transferred to CBI, Verma continued to be associated with the probe team on the directions of the Gujarat high court.
NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, AHMEDABAD, SEP 13
The Union Home Ministry has ordered the dismissal of a senior IPS officer of Gujarat cadre but it could not be implemented due to a court intervention, officials said.
The Union Home Ministry has ordered the dismissal of a senior IPS officer of Gujarat cadre but it could not be implemented due to a court intervention, officials said.
Satish Chandra Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer, who had assisted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the investigation into the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat, was dismissed from service on August 30, a month before his scheduled retirement on September 30.
However, Verma had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the home ministry order and the court barred the central government from implementing the order, an official said.
Verma was due to retire on September 30.
“We still have time till September. We have approached the Supreme Court,” Verma’s lawyer Sarim Naved said.
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Verma, who is posted in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), said: “The impugned order (of Delhi high court) has allowed the Union of India to pass an order that may result in the petitioner’s dismissal from service with retrospective effect (even though he superannuates on September 30, 2022), which is not permissible as per statutory rules governing the members of the All India Services.”
The ministry of home affairs (MHA) had issued a charge memo to Verma in September 2018 alleging that although he was relieved from the post of Chief Vigilance Officer of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation in July 2016, he failed to handover the files and kept them in personal custody for a long time. Other charges against him including talking to the media.
As Ishrat case probe officer, Verma filed an affidavit in the Gujarat high court in 2011 that the 19-year-old Ishrat was killed in a fake encounter in June 2004 along with three men believed to be linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
When the Ishrat case was transferred to CBI, Verma continued to be associated with the probe team on the directions of the Gujarat high court.
