Ishrat case: Gujarat IPS officer PP Pandey surrenders

A day after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Supreme Court, Gujarat Indian Police Service officer P P Pandey, an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, surrendered before a Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad.

A 1982-batch IPS officer, Pandey on Tuesday appeared before the CBI court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate H S Khutwad and surrendered before the court.

The apex court had on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail of the Additional Director General of Police (crime) Pandey, against whom a non-bailable warrant had been issued in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, saying his conduct in remaining absconding dis-entitled him for the relief.

Pandey was earlier declared an absconder by a special CBI court in Ahmedabad, and Gujarat DGP Amitabh Pathak had sought a report from the CID crime on him.

Pandey was joint commissioner of police (crime), Ahmedabad, when Ishrat, a Mumbai-based student, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by Crime Branch sleuths on June 15, 2004, near in Ahmedabad.

Seven Gujarat policemen, including Pandey, have been named as accused and charged with murder and criminal conspiracy by the CBI, which is probing the case under Gujarat high court orders.