Ahmedabad:
A CBI court in Ahmedabad has ordered a lower court to issue an arrest warrant against a senior Gujarat police officer who is accused of killing Mumbai student Ishrat Jehan and three others in a fake encounter in 2004. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says the officer, PP Pande, has gone underground and is being protected by the state government, which says it does not know where the cop is.
Mr Pande is currently serving as an Additional Director General (ADG) in the Gujarat Police. At the time of Ishrat's encounter, cops, including him, had then claimed that the four were terrorists who were planning to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Later enquiries established that the police had lied, and had shot the group in the hope of being rewarded with medals and promotions.
The CBI was asked to take over the case in December 2011. The agency says it has been trying to interrogate Mr Pande, but can't locate him.
The state government has reportedly told the agency that ADG Pande has been on sick leave for a week.
A lower court had rejected the CBI's request to sanction an arrest warrant for the policeman. The agency then filed a review petition in the Special CBI Court against the lower court's order. A decision on that petition today went in favour of the CBI.