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Three IPS officers arrested for fake encounters : Narendra Modi in line of fire

	April 30, 2007

The Supreme Court is expected to issue an order today on the investigation of the Nov. 2005 fake encounter in which Gujarat’s anti-terrorist squad falsely branded Sohrabuddin Sheikh a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, plotting to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders and gunned him down on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Three senior Indian Police Service officers have already been arrested by CID crime branch on charges of murder for their alleged role in the killing. Those arrested are Inspector General (Border Range) D.G. Vanzara, Supdt. of Police Rajkumar Pandayan (Intelligence Wing) and M.N. Dinesh, SP of Rajasthan’s Alwar district.



Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a Madhya Pradesh-based criminal was allegedly killed in a gun-battle on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on Nov. 26, 2005, during a joint operation by Gujarat’s anti-terrorist squad and Rajasthan Police.



In a startling submission before the apex court on April 27, the Gujarat government conceded that Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s wife, Kausar Bibi, might also have been killed. State government counsel K.T.S. Tulsi said there was fair suspicion that Kausar Bibi was dead while admitting that the state government was unable to produce her.



Backing the demand from Sheikh’s family for a CBI probe, the Centre has sought a directive from Supreme Court to Gujarat to produce Kausar who “disappeared” ever since her husband’s killing, calling the fake encounter a “cold blooded” murder.



In a report submitted to the court on April 26, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, an amicus curiae, sought an inquiry by a CBI Special Task Force into the case.



A month ago, the Gujarat government had admitted in the court that the 2005 encounter had been faked and Sheikh was wrongly implicated.





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Minister also colluded with IPS officers



The inquiry into the 2005 fake encounter, prepared by Geeta Johri, then Inspector-General of Police, state CID (Crime), said that Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home Amit Shah tried to scuttle the probe and colluded with the officers responsible for the fake encounter.



The inquiry, undertaken on the orders of the Supreme Court, concludes that “the collusion of the state government in the form of Amit Shah, MoS for Home, is by far the most serious aspect of the entire sordid episode”. It adds: “This makes a complete mockery of the rule of law and is perhaps an example of the involvement of the state government in a major crime.”



The report documents how Shah tried to sabotage the probe. It says he put pressure on G.C. Raigar, commandant of the Home Guards, who also held the post of additional DGP, CID (Crime). Raigar, the report says, “directed Johri to suspend the inquiry and took away the papers of inquiry under the guise of scrutiny”.



The report says Shah had asked Raigar to provide him with the list of witnesses -both police personnel and private citizens - whom the CID (Crime) had yet to contact to record their statements in the inquiry.



“Such direction from the MoS (Home) goes beyond the scope of his office, was patently illegal and apparently designed to provide the same list to the accused police officers to enable them to take measures in their defence,” the report says.



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Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Milon Banerjee supported Subramaniam’s report. His plea was opposed by the Gujarat counsel who held that the Centre should not be allowed to “play politics.” The counsel for the petitioner, Rubabuddin Sheikh, the victim’s brother, said the government should be asked to produce the four interim inquiry reports prepared by the Gujarat IGP (CID) Geeta Johri about the encounter and that she should be brought back to supervise the probe. The court granted his request.



The “damning findings” Ms Johri’s of probe revealed the fake encounter killing and indicated that Sheikh’s wife might have been burnt to death in the forests of Sabarkantha by the ATS. Her report charged Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, with scuttling her probe and colluding with the guilty officers. After Johri submitted her interim report on December 7, 2006, the case was taken away from her overnight.



In the Lok Sabha on April 27, BJP MPs clashed with SP and Left members who, like the Congress and other UPA allies, demanded a CBI probe.



Observers say that the fake encounter case may cost Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi heavily. Apart from the Congress, BJP dissidents are targeting the Chief Minister and demanding imposition of President’s Rule in the state. Two dissident MLAs, Siddarth Parmar and Ramillaben Desai, supported the Congress demand for CBI inquiry into the case. Former Minister Nalin Bhatt, who has been suspended from the BJP, demanded that all the 10 odd socalled encounters carried out by the arrested former chief of the anti-terrorist squad D.G. Vanzara be brought under the CBI scanner. He alleged that most of the encounters in the name of threats to the lives of Narendra Modi and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani were fake and carried out at the instance of Modi.



The question doing the rounds in Ahmedabad, observers say, is whether any of the arrested cops will spill the beans on the political masterminds behind the Nov. 2005 fake encounter killing.



The BJP, in the meantime, has said that while it believes in the rule of law, there is no need to glorify Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Senior BJP leader V.K. Malhotra said in New Delhi on April 27 that as many as 68 cases were pending against Sheikh in several states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.