SC stays trial in Sohrabuddin case

The bench, after a five-hour-long hearing, also ordered the secretary general of the apex court to seal all records pertaining to the proceedings pending before the City Sessions Court, Ahmedabad.

The directions followed submissions by Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who’s the amicus curiae in the case. He criticised the Gujarat Government for its attempts to scuttle the probe. Subramaniam blamed Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri for misleading the investigations to protect accused police officers.

Senior police officers — D G Vanzara (DIG), Raj Kumar Pandiyan (SP) and Dinesh M N (Rajasthan Cadre IPS officer) — are among the main accused behind the alleged fake encounter on November 26, 2006.

“The investigation by Geeta Johri is shoddy, incompetent and designed to tamper with the truth,” he argued while alleging that contrary to the initial reports that Johri was performing her duties in an impartial manner, she was actually acting in tandem with other top officials to tamper with the investigation and save the accused.

He submitted how two DSP-level officers, M L Parmar and M K Amin, accused in the killing, were initially entrusted with the probe. He also said Solanki, a DSP rank officer, had conducted a detailed probe wherein he had mentioned the names of the accused officers and their role in the encounter. But Solanki’s report was neither taken into consideration while “filing the chargesheet nor was brought to the notice of the apex court by Johri”.

In May 2007, the apex court had refused to transfer the investigation of the case to the CBI and had directed in July 2008 further investigations into the incident, after being satisfied with the probe.