NEW DELHI: Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma holding the Inspector General rank has moved the Supreme Court against his dismissal by the Union Home Ministry, headed by Amit Shah, less than a month before the retirement, years after he led a CBI team established a fake encounter by five top IPS officers, killing 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan of Mumbai and four others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.On September 7, the Delhi High Court allowed his dismissal, but protecting him till September 19, to enable him to use his legal options against the dismissal. He seized the opportunity to knock at the Supreme Court’s door.
Since he joined the Ishrat Jahan investigation team, Verma was at loggerheads with the Gujarat Government during the chief ministership of Narendra Modi, in which Amit Shah was a junior minister.
The CBI even filed a charge-sheet against eight police officers, including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal, N K Amin and Tarun Barot, all considered pro-regime, but the case didn’t go on trial as the Gujarat government refused the requisite permission mandatory for the central agencies to prosecute the serving government servants.
The main accusation levelled against an upright Verma is:”Talking to the media in a way that hurt the country’s relations with other countries.”
Verma was a member of the Gujarat High Court’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) and later a member of the CBI’s investigation at the High Court’s request. He was denied promotion by the state government in 2010-2011, clearly due to his stance in the Ishrat Jahan probe case.
His juniors have overtaken him in the hierarchy since the 1986 batch officer was denied promotions. Originally hailing from Bihar, Verma is an IITian from Delhi and holds an IIMA master’s degree in business administration.
