Ahmedabad: Gujarat IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma, who was part of the investigation team in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has been dismissed from service, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs told Delhi High Court last week.
Verma was part of the High Court-appointed SIT that had concluded in 2011 that 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three other persons were killed in a staged encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. Verma was dismissed on August 30, a month before his retirement on September 30. The dismissal order means that Verma would not be entitled to pension or other post-retirement benefits.
On Tuesday, Verma moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s direction permitting the Centre to implement the dismissal order. The Delhi High Court was hearing Verma’s petition against the chargesheet issued to him in September 2021 that had allowed a disciplinary authority set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs to go ahead with its proceedings.
In 2021, the High Court had ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs to not take any “precipitative steps” against Verma. However, on August 30 this year, the High Court allowed the ministry to implement the dismissal order. On September 6, the ministry told the High Court that the disciplinary authority decided to dismiss Verma from service after a departmental inquiry proved the charges against him. The dismissal order said Verma was “talking to the media which dented the country’s international relations."
The High Court while agreeing to implement the dismissal order also provided Verma time till September 19 to avail himself of legal remedies.
