A Special CBI Court inAhmedabad today ordered the issuance of arrest warrant against top Gujarat police officer P P Pande, an accused in the 2004 alleged fake encounter of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others.

The 1980-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre is currently Additional DGP (Crime) and he was Ahmedabad's Joint Commissioner of Police at the time of the encounter.

While granting the prayer of issuing warrant on a revision application filed by the CBI, Judge Gita Gopi held that the court's interference is necessary in the interest of justice.

The CBI court set aside the order of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ahmedabad, rejecting the CBI plea seeking arrest warrant against Pande.

On April 25, ACJM S H Khutwad, while rejecting the CBI plea, had held, “Investigating Officer has powers to arrest, if he wishes, as offence alleged is a cognisable offence.”

Ishrat , a 19 year old college girl from Mumbra town near Mumbai, along with Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, was killed by Ahmedabad Crime Branch in an encounter on June 15, 2004.

Police had then claimed they were terrorists on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. However, relatives of the deceased had claimed they were killed by the police in a staged gunfight. Half a dozen policemen have been arrested in connection with the encounter.