Ishrat Jahan Case: Ex-Gujarat Police Chief PP Pandey Discharged By Court

Ahmedabad: Former top Gujarat police chief PP Pandey will no longer be an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case, a court in Ahmedabad said today.

Mr Pandey has been charged along with other former police officers with conspiracy, illegal confinement and murder in the Ishrat Jehan case by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI.

Mr Pandey is the first accused to be discharged in the case. He spent 19 months in jail before being let out on bail in February 2015.

19-year-old Ishrat Jehan and three others were killed in June 2004 near Ahmedabad by Gujarat police officers who said they were Lashkar terrorists planning to assassinate Narendra Modi, who was then Chief Minister.

Mr Pandey is currently out on bail. He had argued in his petition for discharge that the statements of two witnesses against him are contradictory. He had also referred to his reinstatement in the police force and promotion as Director General of Police.

He had claimed that none of the 105 witnesses examined by the court had named him and he had no "direct or indirect involvement in the case".

Mr Pandey resigned last year in April after his promotion was challenged in the Supreme Court.

The CBI's first charge-sheet in 2013 named seven Gujarat police officers including Mr Pandey, DG Vanzara and GL Singhal.