'Exactly thirteen years ago to the day, Gujarat police shot dead a man called Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Like many similar “encounter” killings in the state at the time, this death, too, would have gone unnoticed in the rest of the country. But a series of developments after the murder on November 26, 2005 linked Sohrabuddin’s name indelibly with that of another man — Amit Shah. Strenuous efforts have been made over the last four and a half years to obliterate that link from public memory.
'In explosive testimony before the special Central Bureau of Investigation court here on Wednesday, Sandeep Tamgadge, chief investigating officer in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case, has said that Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and IPS officers D.G. Vanzara, Dinesh M.N. and Rajkumar Pandiyan were the “principal conspirators” in the controversial killing.
'A special court of the Central Investigation Bureau in Mumbai on Tuesday discharged former Inspector General of Gujarat DG Vanzara and IPS officer Dinesh MN in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Vanzara, who was released on bail in April last year, is also the key accused in Ishrat Jahan and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases. He had retired from the police force while in jail in 2014...'
'A special CBI court dropped charges against Additional Director-General of Police, Gujarat, Geeta Johri on Monday in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, saying the CBI had failed to obtain the mandatory sanction from the Gujarat government for prosecution of an IPS officer. “Prosecution against Johri stands dropped for want of sanction,” Judge M.B. Gosavi said after her counsel, Sachin Pawar, moved a discharge application on the ground that the sanction had not been obtained... Ms.
'Controversial ex-IPS officer DG Vanzara, an accused in the fake encounter cases of Ishrat Jahan and Soharabuddin Sheikh, on Wednesday walked out of the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad after spending almost seven and half years in prison. Soon after his release, an elated Vanzara said, "Surely, acche din (Good days) have returned for me and other Gujarat police officers." The former Gujarat top cop alleged that the state police was targeted for "extra legal political reasons". "Police of every state in the country fought against terrorism.
'If you saw the programme on IBN7 last night, vilifying Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, with BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Sangh spokesperson Rakesh Sinha at their asabhya virulent best, shouting down and intimidating mild Sandeep Pandey and shouting continuously throughout whatever feisty Priyanka Chaturvedi (Congress spokesperson) had to say (which was hard-hitting and unanswerable), you would know what the case against the two activists is really about.
'Four days after a CBI court granted bail to suspended IPS officer PP Pandey in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Gujarat government today revoked his suspension and reinstated him in service. “The state government has revoked the suspension order of PP Pandey and appointed him on the vacant cadre post of Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Gujarat state, Gandhinagar,” an order issued by state Home Department said...
'The order by the Central Bureau of Investigation providing a clean chit to former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah has wiped out the entire slate of the Supreme Court's intervention in various encounter death cases. The discharge of the "lynchpin" of the conspiracy despite voluminous material providing strong grounds for proceeding with the trial will ultimately raise questions about judicial independence. It is a matter of record that the State of Gujarat – after stout denial – admitted that Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife had been killed in illegal police custody.
'The Bharatiya Janata Party and its supporters have hailed it as a vindication. Others have called it strange, worrisome and shameful. On Tuesday, a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation gave BJP president Amit Shah a clean chit in the murder cases of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauserbi and murder witness Tulsiram Prajapati, who were all killed in fake encounters in 2005 and 2006. The court, under special judge MB Gosavi, said there was not enough evidence against Shah to put him on trial for involvement in the encounter killings.
"To some they are heroes, but in the eyes of the Gujarat government, they are villains. Satish Verma and Rajnish Rai, both IPS officers, were each assigned a police encounter case. They concluded from their investigations that policemen had killed persons in their custody in cold blood. They filed cases against policemen involved and arrested them. For their efforts, the Gujarat government has banished them to Meghalaya and Jharkhand as chief vigilance officers (CVOs) at PSUs. This is designed to make it difficult for them to follow up and depose in the cases investigated by them.
