CBI team arrives in Gujarat to probe Sohrabuddin encounter

A team from the CBI Mumbai, which has registered a case against Gujarat police officials in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and disappearance of his wife Kausarbi in 2005, today arrived here for conducting investigation into the case.
    
"We had registered an FIR in the fake encounter case on February 1 at the special crime branch of CBI in Mumbai," Head of the CBI Mumbai (Zone II) P Kandaswamy, who is here with the team, told PTI.

"We are here following the process of law for further action," he said, declining to comment further on the case.

The CBI took up the case on directions of the Supreme Court which came down heavily on the Gujarat government for failing to conduct impartial investigations and attempting to "mislead" the apex court by filing conflicting action taken reports (ATRs).

It registered a case on Monday against Gujarat police officials and others under various sections of IPC including criminal conspiracy, murder and kidnapping.

According to sources, the team that has arrived here would take over the case property from the Gujarat CID which had filed a charge sheet against 14 police officials including suspended DIG DG Vanzara and IPS officers -- Rajkumar Pandyan and Dinesh MN.      

Sheikh was allegedly killed by the Gujarat cops with the help of Andhra Pradesh police claiming that he was planning to kill chief minister Modi in November 2005.

The apex court asked the CBI to probe if there was any "larger conspiracy" to the killings and submit the report within six months for its perusal.

It had said that it would be appropriate to order a CBI inquiry to instill confidence among the relatives of the deceased and the people as those involved in the crime are high-ranking police officials.

Suspended DIG Vanjara and Pandiyan (both Gujarat cadre IPS officers) besides Dinesh MN (Rajasthan cadre IPS officer) are the main accused in the case of killing of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

The court had also lamented that the Gujarat government deliberately attempted to mislead the court on the whereabouts of Sohrabuddin's wife Kauserbi and their family friend Tulsiram Prajapati who are also alleged to have been killed by police to destroy evidence.