Order on Gujarat staged killing Thursday
May 15, 2007 - 6:38:55 PM
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The Gujarat government on May 2, in response to a habeas corpus petition by slain man's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh, seeking direction to the state government to produce his sister-in-law Kausar Bi, missing since her abduction, admitted before the Supreme Court that she too had been killed by the state police after Sheikh's killing.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi, May 15 - The Supreme Court Tuesday deferred till Thursday its ruling on the central government's plea for a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation - into the 2005 staged killing of Ujjain resident Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi.
A bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanian reserved its order observing that the ongoing investigation by the state police appeared to be 'on the right track.'
The bench deferred its order after hour-long arguments during which Gujarat government counsel K.T.S. Tulsi sought to assure the court that the state police was conducting a 'free and fair' investigation, which would be completed within four to six weeks.
Attorney General Milan K. Banerjee, however, insisted on a CBI probe into the matter saying that it was an inter-state crime, involving police of three different states - Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and the state police will not be able to carry the inter-state probe efficiently.
This prompted the bench to ask Tulsi as to how does the Gujarat government 'propose to deal with the situation' and investigate the crime having inter-state ramifications.
Tulsi responded by saying, 'the arm of the law is long enough to catch a criminal in any part of the country and the state government will not be having any problem in probing the inter-state crime.'
Detailing the outcome of the ongoing investigation in the crime, Tulsi told the court that one of the Gujarat police officers, held for his alleged role in the staged killings, has confessed to his involvement before a judicial magistrate.
Tulsi said the state police have already arrested seven of their colleagues involved in the crime and some more arrests were imminent.
He said the police were also gathering scientific evidence to connect various accused persons with their crime.
Referring to Gujarat's Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri's recent visit to Hyderabad, Tulsi said that a senior police officer had also visited the State to make some preliminary enquiry into the role of some individual police officer's of Andhra Pradesh in providing logistic support and other help to the Gujarat police team, trailing the Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their friend Tulsiram Prajapati.
Sheikh, Kausar Bi and Prajapati were killed in a staged encounter after they were kidnapped by a Gujarat police team on Nov 26, 2005 from a bus on its way to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad.
Soon after the abduction, Gujarat police Deputy Inspector General D.G. Vanzara had announced Sheikh's killing in a police shootout and dubbed him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent Bharatiya Janata Party - leaders.
The Gujarat government on May 2, in response to a habeas corpus petition by slain man's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh, seeking direction to the state government to produce his sister-in-law Kausar Bi, missing since her abduction, admitted before the Supreme Court that she too had been killed by the state police after Sheikh's killing.
With this admission, Rubabuddin had pleaded to the court to transfer the probe into the matter to the CBI. The Union Government has also made a similar request.
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