Ahmedabad:
A special court in Ahmedabad on Wednesday rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI's plea for judicial custody of senior Gujarat Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, P P Pande, accused of killing Ishrat Jahan and three others in a fake encounter in 2004.
Mr Pande, who went underground for two months after he was made an accused in the case, has now moved a sessions court for a permanent anticipatory bail which is scheduled to come up for hearing on August 3.
After making an appearance in the Gujarat High Court on a stretcher on Monday, the IPS officer today reported to the special court in a wheelchair.
Mr Pande on Monday got a relief from the Gujarat High Court which stayed his arrest till August 6. The High Court, however, ordered him to apply for an anticipatory bail before a sessions court and also appear in a special CBI court which had declared him a proclaimed offender.
Mr Pande was heading the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad when 19-year-old Ishrat was shot dead with three men on the outskirts of the city in 2004.
In its first chargesheet filed last month, the CBI listed Mr Pande as one of seven policemen who allegedly murdered her in what it described as a "staged encounter" committed "in cold blood".