CBI wants fake encounter case shifted out of Gujarat

The CBI has asked the Supreme Court to shift the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case outside Gujarat for a fair trial and placed before it records to back up allegations of involvement of top police brass in his killing.

The CBI in its status report into its six-month old investigation into the sensational case does not make a direct mention of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the case but has annexed the "internal memo" which makes a reference to him and the then DGP PC Pandey. Pandey has been summoned by the CBI for questioning.

The central probe agency wanted to transfer the case since it expressed doubts over the conduct of a free and fair trial in Gujarat, saying "the atmosphere is not conducive in the state". "The internal memo relating to former DGP PC Pandey and Modi is a part of the document in the status report and affidavit filed by the CBI," sources associated with the status report said.

The investigating agency said on Friday there was reasonable apprehension that influential politicians and bureaucrats would make all possible efforts to derail the trial in the case. Shaikh was killed in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad on November 26, 2005. The CBI has given full details about its investigation which led to the arrest of Amit Shah, a former Gujarat minister of state for home and Modi's close aide. The status report and affidavit were filed by the chief investigating officer Amitabh Thakur who had led the team to interrogate Shah in judicial custody.

Besides examining the internal memo having referenced to Pandey and Modi, the investigating agency might extend its arm of probe to neighbouring state of Rajasthan as one of the senior IPS officers is already chargesheeted in the case, it said. The report said that it has to plug the loopholes to complete the sequence of events as earlier investigations have given a sketchy findings about the Tulsiram Prajapati who was allegedly accompanying Soharabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi in the bus from which the victims were picked up. Prajapati was also killed in a police encounter.

Shaikh, an alleged gangster, was killed allegedly by the Gujarat police with the help of the Andhra Pradesh police claiming he was planning to assassinate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

- Asian Tribune -