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Rajkumar Pandian
The Gujarat government has reinstated IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, who was released on bail in March after spending seven years in jail for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
He has been posted as a liaison officer at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation in Mumbai.
Besides Pandian, police inspector B R Chaube, another accused in the case, has also been reinstated but his posting is yet to be decided. Both Pandian and Chaube were among the first accused policemen who were granted relief in the case, but they have been confined to Mumbai as a condition set in their bail by the Supreme Court.
All the policemen, except six constables, accused in the case have been released on bail. Before Pandian, other co-accused IPS officers Abhay Chudasma, Vipul Agrawal and Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M N have been taken back into the police service after they were granted bail. The then ATS chief D G Vanzara has also been given bail in the case, however, he remains in jail in connection with the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
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Another accused in the case BJP president Amit Shah, then junior home minister in the Gujarat government, has filed a discharge plea before the CBI court in Mumbai.
“Pandian has been reinstated and posted in GIDC, Mumbai,” said GR Aloria, officiating additional chief secretary, home department.
Pandian is also a key accused in the 2007 encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, the sole eyewitness to Sohrabuddin’s killing. Now, both the cases have been clubbed by the order of the apex court. Inspector Ashish Pandya, a co-accused in the Tulsiram case, is also out on bail, but he is yet to be reinstated.
According to the CBI chargesheet, Pandian was part of the team of Gujarat ATS, led by ex-IPS officer Vanzara, that allegedly picked up Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi from Hyderabad and killed them in a staged encounter near Ahmedabad’s Vishala circle in November 2005.
Sohrabuddin was branded by the police as a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative, who was planning to kill key political leaders, including the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
According to the CBI, Pandian played a role in every stage of the conspiracy – right from bringing Sohrabuddin from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad till his killing in the stage managed encounter and destroying evidence.
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