Apex Court seeks CBI reply on Pandian’s plea

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the CBI’s response on the plea of IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, accused in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi, seeking relaxation in his bail barring him from leaving Mumbai during pendency of trial.

A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant issued notice to <g data-gr-id="16">the in</g>vestigating agency on Pandian’s plea, also seeking permission to go to Gujarat. The court had last month allowed the accused officer to visit his ailing mother in Ahmedabad for seven days.

Pandian, who was granted bail on March 28 last year, is facing charges in the case in which Sheikh and his wife were allegedly abducted by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad from Hyderabad and killed in a suspected fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005. 

The Apex Court, while granting bail to him, had directed Pandian not to leave Mumbai, where the trial is going on, without permission of the authority concerned.

The IPS officer had moved the Apex Court in December 2013, after the Bombay High Court on November 20, 2012, had rejected his bail application.

Pandian, along with IPS officer Abhay Chudasma, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer M N Dinesh and some other policemen, were lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai after the Supreme Court transferred the trial in the case to Mumbai from Ahmedabad.