Journalism of Courage
The CBI,probing the 2005 killing of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh,has sought a go-ahead from its headquarters in Delhi to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi for questioning.
Sources said the CBI team had first sought permission in April to summon Modi and his confidant and junior Home Minister Amit Shah (arrested last week) but the team was told that there was not enough evidence then to call them for questioning.
The CBI now wants to question Modi on the manner in which O P Mathur was brought in to supervise the CID probe into the Sohrabuddin case in February 2007,and the transfer of D G Vanzara from ATS Ahmedabad to Border Range DIG. After the transfer of Vanzara,Tulsiram Prajapati,a key witness in the case,was killed in the area under his jurisdiction.
The CBI,sources said,was keen to question former DGP P C Pande who was issued summons on Wednesday. The CBI has in its possession a letter from Pande to former DIG CID Rajneesh Rai,asking that DCP Abhay Chudasama and DySP N K Amin be included in the team probing the case. Both Chudasama and Amin were arrested by the CBI for their role in the murder of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi.
Former CID chief G C Raiger and Inspector V L Solanki are believed to have told the CBI about the alleged role of Pande.
Sources said Modi may be asked why Rai was promoted as DIG,CID,replacing Geetha Johri,on March 30,2007,just when the CID was about to arrest IPS officers involved in the case. Based on a probe done by Solanki,Johri had urged Amit Shah and O P Mathur that a case needed to be registered against Vanzara (then Border Range DIG),SP Rajkumar Pandian and Udaipur SP Dinesh M N.
On May 4,2007,Rai himself was removed,soon after he had arrested Vanzara,Pandian and Dinesh. The Chief Minister,sources said,was likely to be asked this too.
The CBI may also question Modi on the dropping of charges under the Official Secrets Act against Johris husband Anil Johri,an Indian Forest Service Officer,in 2009,two years after the SC had again entrusted Johri with the encounter probe. The court subsequently found loopholes in her investigations and she was removed from the case.
Mathurs appointment as ADGP,supervising the CID probe,was surprising because the CID itself had filed a chargesheet against him in connection with an alleged assault on a woman lawyer.
The letter the CBI has on Pande was reportedly written by him on April 10,2007,to then ADGP CID (Crime) O P Mathur,with a copy to Rai,asking for inclusion of Chudasama and Amin in the CID investigation team. This was just when the CID was said to be inching close to registering an FIR against the officers concerned.
The CID is hereby being instructed to include Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin in the investigating team probing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, stated the letter.
