File photo of PP Pande

The Supreme Court today refused to grant senior Gujarat IPS officer PP Pande any protection from arrest in the 2004 fake encounter killing of college student Ishrat Jahan and three others, saying his conduct did not entitle him to an anticipatory bail."You were an absconder earlier also. Your conduct makes you dis-entitled to anticipatory bail," said the Supreme Court, ending the last legal hope for the 1982 batch police officer who has been evading the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for several months now.The top court also expressed its anger at high-profile people who kept seeking relief, taking up the time that could be devoted to poor litigants waiting for justice."This court has become a safe haven for such people. We have not been able to hear criminal appeals pending before us for years. We are not even devoting five per cent of our time for the common man. It's a sorry state of affairs. I am willing to say it on oath," said Justice Chauhan observed.The senior officer has been largely missing since the CBI last month named him as one of the seven Gujarat policemen allegedly involved in the killing of 19-year-old Ishrat, her friend Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, and two other persons, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.Mr Pande was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, at the time. The Crime Branch officers had claimed the four were terrorists on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

He surfaced last month, making a couple of dramatic appearances in the court, first on a stretcher and then in a wheelchair. But after his bail plea was rejected by the Gujarat High Court last week, he went underground again.The Gujarat government is yet to act against Mr Pande, even after he was declared an absconder, leading to speculation that the Additional Director General-rank officer is being protected by the state authorities.