Fake encounter: Gujarat CID team returns from Andhra Pradesh

The Gujarat CID team that had gone to Andhra Pradesh for investigations into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case has returned, police sources said on Sunday.

The team headed by Inspector General of Police CID (crime) Geeta Johri, which returned on Saturday, made several enquiries at Hyderabad and several other places in connection with the fake encounter case, the sources said.

The CID team also met a senior IPS officer of Gujarat cadre who is presently posted in the Central Industrial Security Force at Hyderabad as one of the three arrested IPS officers is reported to have stayed in the CISF mess.

The probe team also questioned two other lower ranked officers of the Hyderabad police to know if the police team involved in Sohrabuddin's killing were given any other help apart from the accomodation.

The officials however did not say anything about the investigation on their return from Hyderabad.

Sources in the CID however said that the probe team also made thorough inquiries about the fake Andhra Pradesh car number plates that the Gujarat police had made as part of the operation to eliminate Sohrabuddin.

This is the second time that Geeta Johri visited Andhra Pradesh for this case. She had visited several places and also sent an inspector of the Gujarat CID on January 8 this year to the travel agency that was transporting Sohrabuddin, his wife and a friend to Maharashtra from Hyderabad and they were intercepted by the Gujarat police team and taken away.

Johri led the probe team initially and filed four interim reports to the Supreme Court in which she had mentioned how the joint team of Gujarat and Rajasthan police had staged the killing of Sohrabuddin, who was a criminal, but projected him to be a terrorist.

Later the fake encounter probe was handed over to another CID officer Rajnish Rai, junior to Johri, who surprised all by suddenly arresting the three IPS officers involved in the case, and named by Johri -- D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dineshkumar M N (Rajasthan police).

Three more policemen of the Gujarat ATS were subsequently arrested by the probe team for the role in staged-killing of Sohrabuddin and also the death of his wife Kausar Bi, suspectedly at the hands of the same team.