Ahmedabad:
The division bench of the Gujarat High Court today ended its monitoring into the case with the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI filing its first chargesheet in the case earlier this month.
Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari ruled that since the chargesheet had been filed by the investigating agency, it was now up to the trial court to hear the matter.
"Since the magistrate's court is already in possession of the chargesheet, we do not deem it fit to continue with the monitoring," the two-judge bench said.
The court, citing the Supreme Court judgement in the Zakia Jafri case ruled that "it had been laid down by the apex court through its ruling that once the chargesheet is filed in an appropriate court, no other court can monitor the same."
The ruling came on a day when senior Gujarat IPS officer, PP Pande got a temporary relief from the Supreme Court which stayed his arrest till Monday. The apex court has directed Mr Pande to appear before the trial court on Monday.
Mr Pande has been absconding since last few months after the CBI issued summons to him for appearing before it for questioning.
On July 3, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against seven Gujarat Police officers, including Mr Pande.
It had also informed the CBI court that since the fake encounter was a joint operation between the Gujarat Police and the Intelligence Bureau or IB, it was carrying out further investigations in the case.
The agency though has named Special Director of the IB, Rajinder Kumar for being part of the conspiracy but the agency is still to chargesheet him.
A supplementary chargesheet in the case is expected to be filed shortly.