Gujarat Inspector General of Police Geetha Johri may have to explain to the Supreme Court in her reply in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, why she could not append the statement of Sheikh’s accomplice, Sylvester Daniel Christian, in the charge-sheet. Incidentally, Johri had reportedly sought permission to question Sylvester as part of the investigations.Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam had levelled allegations against Johri two days ago that she had “let down” the probe being monitored by the Supreme Court, by ‘conniving with the state to create false records.’ An accomplice of Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati, Sylvester comes from a well-to-do family from Bhopalnagar in Udaipur and is presently lodged in a jail in Udaipur. Sylvester is believed to be holding some crucial leads in connection with the fake encounter of November 26, 2005 and the subsequent murder of Kausarbi. “Though statements of his family members were recorded during the investigation, the CID never questioned Sylvester on grounds that he was missing,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.According to the Ahmedabad police records, Sheikh, Prajapati and Sylvester had stayed together at a house in Rasulabad in Shah-e-Alam between 1997 and 1999. A resident of the same area, Zahid Kadari, who works as a traffic inspector with the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC), had stated this in his statement before a local magistrate in December 2005.On Thursday, Subramaniam had raised doubts on Johari’s approach in the probe, which according to him had ‘a systematic collapse.’ He submitted before the apex court that “Johri had sought permission to interview Tulsi Prajapati, who was accompanying Sheikh and his wife before they were picked up by a team of Gujarat Police on January 5, 2007, although it was believed that Prajapati was killed in another staged encounter in 2006.” This argument was, however, countered by Gujarat’s counsel Hemantika Wahi and Sourav Kripal, who placed an affidavit saying that Johri had sought permission to interview Sylvester.
