Sohrabuddin case: CBI quizzes Andhra cops

Sources said Rao,who was an inspector posted at the Rajendranagar police station at that time,had booked a room at the IPS Officers’ Mess in Hyderabad for Pandian,who is believed to have stayed there for two days before leaving for Sangli.

Early this week,the CBI interrogated N Balasubramnium,who was a superintendent of police and Rao’s senior at that time. Balasubramnium,who is in Gujarat for the last four days,has been quizzed twice by the CBI this week,sources said.

He is suspected to have conspired the alleged abductions with senior Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara,who is now lodged in the Sabarmati jail.

Seven more officers of the AP Police,who were part of Rao’s team,would be called for questioning next week,they said,adding the CBI has received the logbook records of Hyderabad police confirming the involvement of Andhra policemen in the encounter.

The logbooks of Gujarat Police have also suggested that Pandian and his team had visited Hyderabad and Maharashtra in 2005 from where they brought Sheikh and Kausar to Gujarat in police vehicles.

The logbooks also show that a team of Gujarat ATS had gone to Bharuch in the same year,allegedly on Vanzara’s instruction to dispose of Kausar’s ashes in the Narmada river,sources said. The CBI team is likely to go to Bharuch district soon,they added.

Kausar who was killed a few days after Sheikh’s murder on November 26,2005,was allegedly burnt in Vanzara’s native Illol village in Sabarkantha.

Her remains were thrown in a ‘well’ on the banks of Sabarmati. Later,the CBI found that Vanzara had allegedly asked two of his officers to throw some ashes in the Narmada river.