A special CBI Court on Monday granted permission to in-charge Gujarat DGP PP Pandey, an accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case who is on bail, to travel abroad for two months. The court, presided over by Judge SJ Raje, also allowed another IPS officer GL Singhal, Pandey’s co-accused, to travel abroad for a month.
The Judge gave the nod to the police officers by modifying their bail conditions that barred them from leaving India. Both Pandey and Singhal were asked to deposit Rs 2 lakh each as security money.
The two IPS officers, chargesheeted in the alleged fake encounter case of 2004 and currently out on bail, had moved the court with pleas to modify their bail conditions so that they could go abroad.
Pandey told the court he wanted to visit the UK to meet his son and his family and also conduct research for his PhD. Singhal, on the other hand, sought relief on the ground that he needed to visit universities abroad in connection with higher education of his daughter.
The two police officers were named along with five others in the first charge sheet filed by CBI in July 2013.
The case relates to alleged fake encounter of Mumbai-based college student Ishrat Jahan and others accompanying her – Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana on June 15, 2004.