By IANS
New Delhi/Ahmedabad : As more Gujarat police officials were arrested Thursday over the November 2005 staged killing of Ahmedabad resident Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife's subsequent murder, the Supreme Court held that it was a "prima facie" fit case to be probed by the Central Bureau of investigation.
The apex court also gave the Gujarat police "some more time" to complete its probe into the incident and deferred a final order on the issue to May 15.
The Gujarat Crime Investigation Department Thursday detained a few more middle and lower level policemen who were allegedly part of the operation led by the three arrested senior Indian Police Service officers.
Approving the desirability of a CBI probe into the matter, the bench comprising Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyam, said: "We are of the view that a prima facie case has been made out for admitting the petition, calling upon the centre and Gujarat to show cause why the order (for a CBI inquiry) should not be passed and also as to why a writ of habeas corpus should not be issued to produce Kauser Bi (the wife) in court." The bench, however, refrained from transferring the case to the CBI giving the state government "some more time" to complete its investigations.
While deferring its order, the court admitted a petition by Sheikh's brother for a probe by the CBI into the matter and issued notices to the central and state governments for their reply within a week. The bench said "having heard the counsel for the parties and after considering the fact that the investigation is now at the final stage, we feel that some more time may be granted to the Gujarat government before any further action is taken in the matter."
The central government too had earlier sought the court's direction for a CBI probe into the matter. The Gujarat government had already filed three action-taken-reports regarding the staged killing of the Muslim couple after branding them as terrorists, and their friend Tulsiram Prajapati, to the court. The court appeared dissatisfied with reports and sought to know in particular if the senior Indian Police Service officer Geeta Johri, inquiring into the case, has been taken off the probe. The court also wanted to know about her interim reports into the investigation.
Meanwhile, Gujarat CID detained some junior policemen of the rank of inspector, sub-inspector and constable, who were allegedly members of the team that tracked Sheikh and his wife all the way from Hyderabad till the place of abduction on Nov 26, 2005 from a bus on its way to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad. Gujarat police sources said the individual role of these policemen is being scrutinised carefully so that there are no loopholes in the investigation.
"These policemen are being interrogated as they were part of the team that conducted the entire operation. There was some intelligence input involved to track Sohrabuddin. The policemen knew specifically by which bus he, his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati (a friend of theirs) were travelling in and also the seat numbers," they said.
The sources said they are also probing the role of some Andhra Pradesh policemen in providing logistic support to the Gujarat police team by shadowing Sheikh in Hyderabad.
The story of staged killings by the Gujarat police came to light after Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh filed a habeas corpus petition before the apex court seeking the production of Kausar Bi. Soon after the abduction, Gujarat police Deputy Inspector General D.G. Vanzara had announced Sheikh's killing in a police shootout, dubbing him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist who had entered the state allegedly from Hyderabad on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
But there was no word from the police on Kausar Bi, who too, the Gujarat government told the apex court, was killed and burnt at a village near Ahmedabad. As the matter reached the court, the state government arrested three senior IPS officers – Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan and Superintendent of Police M.N. Dinesh of Alwar in Rajastahna.
Meanwhile, over 50 journalists from Ahmedabad Thursday sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan apprising him of the state's police move of preventing them from entering the state police headquarter in Gandhinagar. Seeking intervention of the chief justice, the journalists said they were being obstructed by the police in reporting about the killings.