Cop quits, may spell trouble for Modi govt

Cop quits, may spell trouble for Modi govt

Prashant Dayal TNN 

Ahmedabad: Arrested IPS officer Girish L Singhal is raring to become the next ‘Singham’ — a cop fighting against the establishment to which he belongs. 
    In a move that could spell trouble for the Narendra Modi government, Singhal on Friday resigned from the Indian Police Service to wage his own battle after being arrested by the CBI on February 21 in connection with the Ishrat Jahan encounter case . 
    Singhal’s bitterness is evident from his resignation letter addressed to the additional chief secretary (home) S K Nanda dated February 27. 
    “I herewith tender my resignation from the IPS. 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 a policeman from the victimization,” he wrote. 
    Singhal, lodged in Sabarmati jail along with four other cops charged in the case, told TOI, “I am resigning because even if I were to be acquitted, my conscience would not allow me to wear the police uniform again.” 
    The CBI was granted five-day remand of Singhal on Friday. 
    He now becomes potent ammunition in the hands of IGP Satish Verma, who is overseeing the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case investigation. 
    Ishrat was one of the four people killed by Ahmedabad city crime branch, then headed by D G Vanzara, in what is seen as a staged encounter. The other three persons included two Pakistanis — Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar — and Ishrat’s boyfriend Pranvesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh. 
    Singhal, who was an income tax officer before joining the police, may spill the beans on the conspiracy behind the encounter and implicate his seniors, including politicians. 
    Out of the many fake encounters under the leadership of Vanzara, Singhal was involved only in the Ishrat case.