The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by former IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma, who assisted the CBI in its probe in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, against the Centre’s order dismissing him a month before his scheduled retirement.
Verma was dismissed from service on August 30 last year, a month ahead of his scheduled retirement on September 30, 2022, after a departmental inquiry found him guilty of various charges, including “interacting with public media”.
Verma had approached the high court following the Supreme Court’s order allowing him to file a plea here.
“We find no merit in the writ petition. Writ petition is dismissed,” said a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva.
The apex court, on September 19, 2022, had stayed the Centre’s dismissal order for a week and said it is for the high court to consider the question as to whether the stay or vacation of dismissal order is to continue.
Subsequently, on September 26 of the same year, the high court had refused to stay the Centre’s order dismissing Verma.
Verma had probed the high-profile Ishrat Jahan case of 2004 between April 2010 and October 2011.
Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai, and three others, were killed in an alleged staged encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
The deceased were dubbed as LeT terrorists who were accused of having plotted to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.