The CBI probe into Sohrabuddin’s encounter will bring out the truth
Mukul Sinha
Criminal lawyer & human rights activist
NEVER IN his wildest dreams would former Gujarat IGP DG Vanzara have imagined he would encounter the CBI one day. Between 2002 and April 2007 he was the de facto police chief of Gujarat. No police officer dared cross his path given his proximity to Chief Minister Narendra Modi. As chief of the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad, and later of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, he built the dreaded team of ‘encounter specialists’. They carried out seven “successful” encounters, killing around 15 “dreaded terrorists” during 2002-06. Most FIRs of the encounters said the “dreaded terrorists” were connected with either LeT or Hizbul or Dawood Ibrahim and aimed to assassinate Modi.
Police shot and killed Sohrabuddin Sheikh on November 26, 2005. His wife, Kauserbi, was injected with Pentothal and apparently burnt. Her body was never found. A letter from Sohrabuddin’s brother, Rubabuddin, to the Chief Justice of India led to a preliminary inquiry by the CID and later to a writ petition before the apex court. Handed the probe, DIG Rajnish Rai did the unthinkable: He arrested Vanzara and IPS officers Dinesh MN of Rajasthan and Rajkumar Pandyan of Gujarat. Deputy SP Narendra Amin was arrested and accused of murdering Kauserbi. The arrest shook Gandhinagar. Rai was replaced by IGP Gita Johri. Johri’s probe revealed that the Gujarat Police kidnapped Sohrabuddin, Kauserbi and another person, Tulsi Prajapati, while they were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli. After serving jail terms for over a year, Prajapati was ‘eliminated’ in an encounter in December 2006. But then the investigation started faltering. Johri made no attempt to recover the remains of Kauserbi’s body. It was found that the gunshot wound on the policeman who killed Prajapati was self- inflicted. But she did not pursue this lead. She also did not investigate the mobile phone call records of the police officers. So Rubabuddin went back to the Supreme Court. On January 12, 2010, the apex court directed that the CBI be given the investigation. This probe can now bring out the required evidence to indict not just more police officers but also their political masters. That no serious inquiry was instituted in seven “encounters” in Ahmedabad raises grave questions about the bona fides of the government. It would have been impossible for a Gujarat police officer to dare look for evidence that may implicate the political bosses. That hurdle is now removed.
The CBI could bring out the required evidence not just against the police but also their political masters
Like in other cases, police from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are involved in the Sohrabuddin case. The CBI probe would dig for evidence in different states and bring out the nexus between their police. Gujarat Police said they shot and killed Prajapati near the Rajasthan border after he tried to escape from the train on the way back to Udaipur from Ahmedabad, where he had been brought to appear in another case. Investigation revealed that Dinesh, then Udaipur SP, had personally assigned the two policemen to accompany Prajapti.
Now that the majesty of the law has once again been established by the Supreme Court, the country will have high expectations of the capability and impartiality of the CBI. Numerous allegations have been levelled at the Modi government in the last seven years, but none have stuck. Either they are wholly innocent or too smart to catch. We have to now wait and see what the CBI can do.
(Mukul Sinha has represented Sohrabuddin’s brother, Rubabuddin, in this case before the Gujarat High Court)
