The Home Ministry has dismissed the Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Satish Chandra Verma from service -- who had assisted as a part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case -- a month before he was scheduled to retire.
While his juniors from the 1987 batch and other batches are working as Director General of Police rank officers, the 1986 batch officer is still employed as the Inspector General of Police (IGP). Verma, who is originally from Bihar, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and went on to study the Indian Institute of Management's flagship postgraduate business administration programme there.
Verma was a member of the High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team that determined in 2011 that Zeeshan Johar, Amjadali Akbarali Rana, Javed Shaikh, and 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan were all killed in a staged encounter with security forces on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
In 2014, Mr. Verma claimed that his investigation into the Ishrat Jahan case was the reason why "he was consequently antagonised since 2010–11", in a petition against his abrupt transfer to the northeast on a central deputation.
He 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.
The High Court, in 2021 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.
In order to challenge two high court orders, Mr. Verma petitioned the Supreme Court. It is scheduled for September 16. He is posted with the CRPF in Coimbatore. "There is a training school and he is posted as Director there," an official said. Meanwhile, the state and central governments have denied him permission to travel abroad, ordered to evict his official residence in Ahmedabad despite the entitlement of having two official residences for officers posted in North Eastern states.
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