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New Delhi, May 24 : The Centre has served yet another notice on senior IPS officer Satish Verma, who was a member of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jehan case, seeking his reply to charges of alleged “misconduct” and “unauthorised absence” from duty.
Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, is at present posted as Chief Vigilance Officer at the Shillong- based North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO).
According to official sources, Verma was served another notice after he failed to comply with earlier one in which he had been given 10 days to submit his reply. He had been served with a ‘charge memo’ earlier this month.
The sources said since the Ministry of Home Affairs had not received any reply from the official the authorities sent a reminder asking Verma to respond as soon as possible failing which “an ex-parte decision” will be taken.
The Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority for IPS officers, initiated the action against him after NEEPCO, which comes under the power ministry, submitted a report against Verma accusing him of being “absent” from duty “unauthorisedly” and travelling without permission, a violation of service conduct rules for officers of All India Services.
Verma did not reply to text messages sent on his phone seeking his comments. Earlier also he had refused to comment when the first notice was served.
Verma was part of a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jehan
encounter killing case.
He took a different line from the other two members and filed an affidavit in the High Court that the encounter killing could have been staged and also raised doubts over Ishrat being a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Recently, when the Ishrat Jehan case was in news again over change in affidavit, Verma was interviewed by the media during which he disputed the claim that the girl from Mumbra near Mumbai was a terrorist. He also claimed that the encounter was staged.
He was later part of the CBI team whose investigations resulted in charge-sheeting of four IPS officers, including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal and Rajinder Kumar, retired Special Director of Intelligence Bureau, among others.
While others have been released on bail, sanction to prosecute Kumar and other three IB officers was not given by the Centre.