RR Verma to head Ishrat SIT; he is 4th chief in 4 months!

The bench of the Gujarat high court comprising justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari on Tuesday convened an urgent hearing and appointed RR Verma, a 1978 batch IPS officer of Bihar cadre, as chairman of the SIT probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. RR Verma is currently posted as Additional Director General (ADG) of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

The urgent hearing was necessitated as JV Ramudu, IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, had refused to take charge as Ishrat SIT chairman despite the court's July 15 order.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the Central government found itself on the back foot. The high court bench sought an explanation from the secretary and joint secretary of the union home ministry before August 5 regarding the Centre's approach in recommending names for appointment of a chairman for the Ishrat SIT.

The bench pulled up the Union government for showing a 'callous' approach towards the matter by recommending officers who were unwilling to take charge, and warned of stern action. "We hardly need to record that the sanctity of the proceedings and the order of this court are required to be respected by one and all and, first, it should come from the Union of India which is the Union government," the high court said. The court warned the Central government that it would take action on the issue if the sanctity of the proceedings before the court was not maintained by the Union of India as it would put at stake the nation's democratic structure itself.

Earlier, the home ministry had suggested the name of Ramudu for the post of Ishrat SIT chairman and had claimed that prior consent of the Andhra Pradesh government had been taken regarding his name. At this, the high court had appointed Ramudu as the chairman of the SIT. However, Ramudu refused to take up the new assignment as he recently had a serious surgery and was not in a condition to handle the probe due to health constraints.

Therefore, the union government moved a plea before the court seeking that it amend its previous order appointing Ramadu as the Ishrat SIT chief. It also suggested the names of RR Verma, RC Arora, a 1979-batch IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre and Vivek Dubey, 1981-batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Jissan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were killed in an encounter by the personnel of the Detection of Crime Branch on June 15, 2004.

The high court set up the SIT to investigate the encounter and IPS officer Karnal Singh of Delhi was its first chairman. When he quit, Satypal Singh, an IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was appointed in his place. And when Satyapal Singh also expressed his reluctance to take up the assignment, the court had appointed JV Ramadu as chairman of Ishrat SIT.