The Gujarat high court on Tuesday appointed a Bihar cadre IPS officer as the chief of the SIT probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter — the fourth in less than a year — and slammed the Union government for adopting a “casual approach” to the case.
Mr Rajiv Ranjan Verma was made the head the Special Investigation Team (SIT), a post which appeared to be jinxed, after another court appointee J.V. Ramudu, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IPS officer, backed out of the job last Friday.
The Centre had assured the court that his consent has been taken for the job. However, Ramudu refused to take up the assignment last Friday due to health reasons and informed the court that his consent in the matter was not sought in an embarrassment to the Centre.
The Centre on Tuesday through assistant solicitor-general Pankaj Champanari moved an application in the court of Justice Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari, giving updates on Ramudu’s denial and suggested new names for his replacement.
Besides Mr Verma, the names of R.C. Arora of Madhya Pradesh cadre and Vivek Dubey of Andhra Pradesh cadre were suggested.
Mr Verma will be the fourth chief of the Ishrat SIT. At the time of appointment of the Ishrat SIT almost a year back, it was headed by Delhi cadre IPS officer Karnail Singh, who was relieved later. —PTI