Rajnish Rai puts ex-DGP in dock

Rai,who is presently on study leave,has also alleged that Mathur wanted to share investigation details in the 2005 Sohrabuddin encounter case with top ruling party leaders in Rajasthan.

It was Rai who had arrested IPS officers D G Vanzara,Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh M N from Rajasthan while he was probing into the Sohrabuddin encounter case. After he made the arrests,Rai was shunted out and his colleague Geetha Johri was reinstated.

Some of the serious charges that Rai has made in his CAT affidavit against Pande and Mathur are:

n Pande played an acquiescent role in the criminal conspiracy by former home minister Amit Shah and others who tampered with official records pertaining to the Sohrabuddin case in the office of CID Crime to hide their role in obstructing the much-needed visit of police inspector V L Solanki to Udaipur for recording the statement of Tulsiram Prajapati. This delay was used by the concerned accused police officers to kill Prajapati in an encounter on December 28,2006. Pande did not take any steps to prevent the tampering of records despite the fact that Shah had directed the supervisory officer to do so in his presence. This indicates Pandes complicity in the conspiracy to murder Tulsiram Prajapati with the motive of not bringing on record the testimony of a key witness. These facts have been disclosed by the witnesses,including Solanki.

n Delayed further investigation in the case to save the accused persons despite knowing the fact that the preliminary inquiry report dated December 7,2007,submitted by former CID crime DIG Geetha Johri,had clearly established that the accused police officers were involved in cold-blooded murder of Sohrabuddin.

n Pande first ordered further investigation on January 25,2007,but cancelled his order on February 2,2007.

n Pande thwarted investigations at every stage. He hid the truth from the Supreme Court by deleting the facts from the draft ATRs which were uncomfortable for him or for the state government.

n Mathur wanted to share the case records with Home Minister and DGP of Rajasthan. Rai advised him against it in writing since they and even Shah had no locus standi to see the case records.

n When the SC was informed about the continued interference of Pande,it ordered in May 2007 that the investigating agency shall submit a probe report to the apex court only and that there was no need to take permission from the DGP.

n Once again,the investigation of the case was entrusted to Johri,which only derailed it. Her investigations were viewed as improper and unsatisfactory by the Supreme Court,which made adverse comments for Johri and her supervision and transferred the probe to the CBI in January,2010.