Ahmedabad:
After the arrest of his close aide Amit Shah, it now appears that the CBI will question Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Shah is in jail on charges of murdering Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a young Muslim man, and his wife, Kauser. The couple was killed in November, 2005, allegedly by the senior-most officers of the Gujarat police.
The CBI believes that these policemen were following Shah's orders. Sources also confirm that an internal report of the CBI refers to Modi. (
Read: Sohrabuddin killed for money and politics: CBI chargesheet)
In a report submitted to court, where the CBI asked for permission to arrest Shah, the agency states, "refer again to annexure C for its potential in respect to the chief minister also".
Annexure C allegedly contemplates whether Modi, as Chief Minister who also held the Home portfolio, was aware of Shah's attempts to influence the investigation into Sohrabuddin's murder, to disguise the facts.
Sources tell NDTV that the CBI wants to know if Modi was aware of decisions taken by Shah in the Sohrabuddin Case. As the Junior Home Minister, Shah was, according to cellphone records, in constant touch with the policemen who illegally abducted and then killed Sohrabuddin and Kauser. (
Read: 25 calls between Amit Shah and NK Amin)
NDTV also has access to another internal CBI report, the arrestproposal for accused cop and former Ahmedabad crime branch chief AbhayChudasama.
The report talks about how the Chief Minister knew about transfers,that were timed to allegedly scuttle the probe. Chudasama has beencharged with destruction of evidence and trying to hamper the probeinto the Sohrabuddin case.
The report says:
Apart from the obstruction of investigation by illegal means throughinfluencing and inducing/pressuring the officers, it also transpiresthat the administrative powers of the State Government were misused toplace certain officers at certain places and certain favours/disfavoursas the case maybe were given to them for their acts of commission andomission.
A perusal of this shall amply substantiate the point that Amit Shahwas instrumental in the acts of commission and omission by theofficers, in the investigation of this case. Although the files forthese administrative decisions in respect of these officers weredefinitely put up to the Chief Minister also for final orders as perrules of business in respect of All India service officers, the primaryresponsibility for suggesting at the ministerial level the course ofaction was of Amit Shah.The Congress is saying the buck stops at the Chief Minister who alsohold the Home portfolio in the state cabinet. ''The Chief Minister wasin charge of the Home Department during the transfer. It's not possiblethe transfer order was issued without his knowledge. Surely Amit Shahhad the blessing the CM on this matter,'' says Arjun Modhvadiya, thespokesperson of Congress' state unit.
The BJP says the entire case is aimed at undermining Modi and his government. Tarun Vijay, BJP spokesperson, said, "all these cases are a sham and nothing but a political revenge. Everyone knows Sohrabuddin was a dreaded terrorist and an anti-national person. The government is eyeing the Bihar, UP polls and using the CBI to intimidate the patriotic people of the country."
Shah, who was Modi's Minister of State for Home till last weekend, has completed the first of three rounds of interrogation by the CBI. His responses were declared unsatisfactory by the CBI on the grounds that Shah did not cooperate during interrogation and has denied any knowledge or involvement in the Sohrabuddin case.
Initially, the case was handled by the Gujarat police's Criminal Investigations Department or CID. A team headed by Geeta Johri, Inspector General, CID, was declared by the Supreme Court to be ineffective. There were allegations that Johri and others were trying to protect senior policemen as well as politicians.
In January this year, the Supreme Court asked the CBI to take over the case, and gave the agency six months to file a report.
Among other questions that the CBI wants to ask Modi is reportedly the issue of why he, in 2007, ordered the transfer of GC Raiger, who was then the Chief of the CID. Raiger has told the CBI that Shah summoned him and asked him to deliberately mishandle the investigation. He claims that when he repeatedly refused, he was transferred by the Chief Minister. (
Read: CBI asks Amit Shah 37 questions on Sohrabuddin)
Key police officers to be interrogated
Over the next few days, the CBI hopes to fortify its case against Shah by interrogating three key police officers: Johri, who once headed the Sohrabuddin investigation; PC Pande, the former Director General of the Gujarat Police; and OP Mathur, former chief of the Gujarat CID. All three reportedly compromised the case.
In 2006, Johri established that Sohrabuddin's death had been a fake encounter. She reportedly proved this despite political pressure. Inspector VL Solanki, one of the policemen who worked with her on the case has told the CBI that in November 2006, Shah called a meeting with Johri, Pande who was head of and GC Raigar, who was head of the CID. Solanki has testified that at this meeting, Shah asked for the case to be derailed.
Johri and Raigar refused. And that, Raigar says, in his statement to the CBI, led to his transfer by the Chief Minister (he is now a key witness for the CBI). Johri was taken off the case, and replaced by Deputy Inspector General Rajnish Rai. If what the government wanted was collusion, not everyone in the police was cooperative. Within a month, Rai arrested the three police men who allegedly planned and executed Sohraubbidn and Kauser's deaths: DG Vanzara, Raj Kumar Pandian, and Dinesh MN.
But Rai had a new boss by now. OP Mathur replaced Raigar as the head of the CID, and he removed Rai and brought back Johri. The CBI believes that by now, Johri was more willing to bend the rules. It was May 2007 - and Johri drew a picture that showed the policemn who killed Sohraubddin and Kauser wanted promotions and rewards. She steered clear of linking them to a political conspiracy. The CBI believes she destroyed crucial documents.
In January 2010, the Supreme Court, confronted with lapses in the case, asked the CBI to take over.0, the Supreme Court, confronted with lapses in the case, asked the CBI to take over.
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