The Delhi High Court rejected a former IPS officer’s plea against the Centre’s decision to dismiss him before his retirement. Satish Chandra Verma had assisted the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. The allegations against Verma were that he interacted with media without permission and spoke about matters that were within his duties. Verma was dismissed in 2021 after a departmental inquiry found him guilty of various charges, including interacting with public media. The high court dismissed his writ petition, and the Supreme Court had earlier allowed him to file it. Verma had probed the Ishrat Jahan case between 2010 and 2011.
In 2004, Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in an alleged staged encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The deceased were accused of plotting to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Based on Verma’s investigation report, a Special Investigation Team had concluded that the encounter was fake. The Gujarat High Court had later directed the CBI to probe the case and avail Verma’s services.
The apex court had stayed the Centre’s dismissal order for a week and left it to the high court to decide whether the stay or vacation of dismissal order should continue. However, on September 26 of the same year, the high court refused to stay the Centre’s order dismissing Verma.
