Cops must have killed encounter victim's wife too: Gujarat

Cops must have killed encounter victim's wife too: Gujarat


Cops must have killed encounter victim's wife too: Gujarat

By IANS
Friday April 27, 04:37 PM
New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) The Gujarat government admitted in the Supreme Court Friday that the wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, victim of a staged shootout that has led to the arrest of three senior police officers, could have been killed too.
Acting on a Supreme Court directive, two officers from Gujarat and one from Rajasthan were arrested Tuesday for the murder of Sheikh in an engineered shooting in Ahmedabad in November 2005 after claiming that he was a terrorist with Lashkar-e-Taiba links and planned to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
In a damning disclosure, Gujarat government counsel told a bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee that there was a 'fair suspicion' of Kasuri Bi, missing since the couple's abduction by the police in November 2005, having been killed as well.
The counsel, K.T.S. Tulsi, made his statement during the hearing of a petition filed by Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh, who sought a direction to the Gujarat government to produce Kasuri Bi before the court.
Apprehending that Kasuri Bi might have been killed by errant cops, Tulsi conceded before the court that the state government might not be able to produce her before the court.
The court adjourned the hearing till Monday saying that it would wait for the Gujarat government's report on the matter before passing its order on the habeas corpus petition.
The three senior police officers arrested this week for their alleged complicity in the crime are Inspector General (Border Range) D.G. Vanzara and Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajkumar Pandyan of Gujarat and Rajasthan officer M.N. Dinesh, who is Alwar SP.
The court had earlier this week asked both the union and the state governments to enquire into the matter and submit their reports to the court.
While the Gujarat government has failed to file any report till date, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam Thursday asked for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe as the police of more than one state were involved.
Attorney General Milon K. Banerjee Friday endorsed the recommendation and said that would be a constitutionally correct step.
Opposing the CBI probe, Tulsi told the court that the union 'government should not be allowed to play politics in criminal cases'.
He said the state had already taken action and three senior police officers had been arrested after painstaking investigations. He said he did not know why the attorney general 'was playing politics?'
Discounting the prospect of a CBI probe at the present juncture, the court observed: 'The state government was also conducting the inquiry and unless it felt that they are not doing it in proper manner, we cannot pass any order.'
As the Gujarat government counsel exchanged words with the attorney general, petitioner Rubabuddin Sheikh's lawyer said he was getting caught in a crossfire between the centre and the state.
He said the state government should be asked to submit to the court the four interim reports on the incident prepared by senior Gujarat IPS officer Gita Johari and that she should be included in the probe.
The court was informed that Johari had been removed from the investigation of the case and accepted the plea that the report prepared by her be produced before it.