Apparently unhappy over the way hewas treated by the state government, Girish Singhal, the firstpolice officer from Gujarat to be arrested by CBI in IshratJahan fake encounter case, has resigned from the Indian PoliceService.
In his resignation letter to Additional Chief Secretary(Home) S K Nanda, dated February 27, Singhal, a 2001-batchofficer, says, "I herewith tender my resignation from theIndian Police Service. Presently I am holding a post ofSuperintendent of Police. I would like to share my pain andgrief that I deeply feel that the department and governmentfailed to protect me as policeman from victimisation."
"We have received an application of resignation fromSinghal. But the signature is not his normal signature," Nandatold PTI when contacted.
"We will first verify the signature. Right now, he is inpolice remand, and once a police officer is in remand for 48hours, he is deemed as suspended following which he cannotavail any post-retirement benefits nor will his resignationmatter," Nanda said.
Singhal, who was posted as Superintendent of Police at theState Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), was arrested by CBI onFebruary 21.
He was Assistant Commissioner of Police, Detection ofCrime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad, when the alleged encounter hadtaken place.
Currently, Singhal is in six days of CBI custody. He isbeing interrogated for his alleged role in Ishrat Jahan fakeencounter case.
Following Singhal's arrest, CBI arrested four more policeofficers - retired DSP J G Parmar, Mehsana Deputy SP TarunBarot, Special Operations Group (SOG) Inspector Bharat Pateland commando with State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) AnajuChaudhary.
19-year-old girl Ishrat, based in Mumbra in Maharashtra'sThane district, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, and twoalleged Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Joharwere killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004 on a desolatestretch between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.
Gujarat Police had then claimed that they were part of theconspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba toassassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
After Jahan's mother complained about the alleged fakeencounter, the Gujarat High Court constituted a SpecialInvestigation Team which concluded that encounter was staged.
Following the SIT report, the High Court handed over thecase to CBI on December 1, 2011 and is monitoring theprobe.
