First IPS held in Ishrat Jahan case resigns

Apparently unhappy over the way he was treated by the state government, Girish Singhal, the first police officer from Gujarat to be arrested by CBI in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has resigned from the Indian Police Service.

Apparently unhappy over the way he was treated by the state government, Girish Singhal, the first police officer from Gujarat to be arrested by CBI in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has resigned from the Indian Police Service.

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In his resignation letter to Additional chief secretary (Home) SK Nanda, dated February 27, Singhal, a 2001-batch officer, says, "I herewith tender my resignation from the Indian Police Service. Presently I am holding a post of Superintendent of Police. I would like to share my pain and grief that I deeply feel that the department and government failed to protect me as policeman from victimisation."

"We have received an application of resignation from Singhal. But the signature is not his normal signature," Nanda told PTI when contacted.

"We will first verify the signature. Right now, he is in police remand, and once a police officer is in remand for 48 hours, he is deemed as suspended following which he cannot avail any post-retirement benefits nor will his resignation matter," Nanda said.

Singhal, who was posted as Superintendent of Police at the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), was arrested by CBI on February 21.

He was Assistant Commissioner of Police, Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad, when the alleged encounter had taken place.

Currently, Singhal is in six days of CBI custody. He is being interrogated for his alleged role in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Following Singhal's arrest, CBI arrested four more police officers - retired DSP J G Parmar, Mehsana Deputy SP Tarun Barot, Special Operations Group (SOG) Inspector Bharat Patel and commando with State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) Anaju Chaudhary.

19-year-old girl Ishrat, based in Mumbra in Maharashtra's Thane district, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, and two alleged Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004 on a desolate stretch between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Gujarat Police had then claimed that they were part of the conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

After Jahan's mother complained about the alleged fake encounter, the Gujarat High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team which concluded that encounter was staged.

Following the SIT report, the High Court handed over the case to CBI on December 1, 2011 and is monitoring the probe.