Ahmedabad:
What the CBI has uncovered so far about how Sohrabuddin Sheikh's infamous murder in Gujarat has been explained in a report submitted to the Supreme Court this morning. The CBI has asked for the case to be shifted out of Gujarat because it believes the investigation cannot be conducted fairly in the state. The agency has also made two other significant requests: that it be given another three months to complete its investigation into Sohrabuddin's murder, and that it be assigned to examine the murder of Tulsiram Prajapati, who was a key witness in Sohrabuddin's case.
The CBI believes that Sohrabuddin, his wife, Kauser, and Tulsiram Prajapati were all killed by the Gujarat police, on the orders of Amit Shah, who was the Minister of State for Home, and a close aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi's. The CBI has arrested Shah, and believes, according to an internal report, that it has enough grounds to question Modi as well.
(Read - Amit Shah case: Why CBI wants to interrogate Modi)The deaths of Sohrabuddin, Kasuer and Tulsiram suggest a careful conspiracy that extends from planning and executing their murders to an unflinching cover-up. Police officers who tried to prove their colleagues - most of them senior- were guilty of corruption, kidnapping and murder, have been forced into submission. A handful who didn't, are now witnesses for the CBI.
(Read: CBI says Amit Shah is not cooperating)Sohrabuddin and his young wife were on a bus from Andhra Pradesh to Sangli in Gujarat in November 2005. At 1 am, the bus was stopped and the couple, along with another passenger named Tulsiram Prajapati, was taken away by men who introduced themselves as police officers. They were not in uniform but were armed with guns. Tulsiram and Sohrabuddin both had criminal records, mainly as extortionists in Rajasthan.
Prajapati was taken to Udaipur by a team of Rajasthan police officers where they planned to jail him. Sohrabudin and Kausar were kept at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Sohrabuddin was shot dead first. Then, Kauser was killed. Tulsiram was declared several months later as the main witness to their abduction. He was shot by the Gujarat police in 2006, days before he was to record his testimony.
The men who abducted and killed Sohrabuddin and Kauser were among Gujarat's senior-most policemen. They had a reputation of fierce venality and violence, and their swagger carried the weight of political patronage. Together, they allegedly extorted large sums of money from businessmen. The CBI believes that Sohrabuddin had spent years extorting money from marble traders in Rajasthan, and that Tulsiram worked closed with him. Sohrabuddin had, by late 2005, annoyed powerful businessmen who approached politicians for help. Amit Shah stepped in, according to the CBI, and asked the ring of Gujarat policemen who worked closely with him to get rid of Sohrabuddin. Shah's motives, according to the CBI, were political and financial.
(Sohrabuddin killed for money and politics: CBI chargesheet)The police-officers who allegedly obliged Shah include DG Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Abhay Chudasama. They are now in jail. Initially, their role was examined by the Gujarat Police's Criminal Investigations Department (CID). The CID's assignment was tough: to act against its own, and to resist political pressure. Geeta Johri, who headed the CID inquiry in 2006, tried initially to ignore the influence of senior policemen and politicians. That was reportedly the reason why she was dropped from the case in early 2007. The man, who took over from her, Rajnish Rai, did not go soft on the policemen named in the murder. So within five months, Johri was brought back. From then on, the CBI says, she did as she was told.
Johri has now been told by the CBI that unless she cooperates and furnishes the facts, she will be arrested.
Discontent with Johri's reports, the Supreme Court in January this year assigned the Sohrabuddin case to the CBI. The agency was given six months to report on its findings. CBI sources say that Tulsiram's death was orchestrated by the same police officers who are in jail for Sohrabuddin's murder. So far, the Gujarat police- once again, the CID - which is handling Tulsiram's case, has argued that's not correct. In asking for the Tulsiram case, the CBI wants to establish that his death was very much a result of his willingness to testify against the police officers who kidnapped him and murdered Sohrabuddin and Kauser.
Sohrabuddin case: Links to politicians, policemen in RajasthanSo far, in the five years since Sohrabuddin's death, there has been only one arrest connected to Rajasthan - that of police officer MN Dinesh, who was among the cops who killed Sohrabuddin. As the CBI enters the final phase of its investigation, the Rajasthan dimension is getting bigger.
In Gujarat, Sohrabuddin was known to policemen and politicians who used him to extort money from big builders.
Two BJP politicians - Om Mathur and Gulabchand Kataria - are suspected to have served as the link between the marble lobby in Rajasthan that was willing to pay big money to have Sohrabuddin assassinated, and Amit Shah and the policemen who allegedly carried out the execution.
Om Mathur, currently a BJP MP to the Rajya Sabha, is known to be close to Amit Shah. Gulabchand Kataria, an MLA in Rajasthan, allegedly accepted the money from the marble lobby for Sohrabuddin's death.
With Shah's arrest, the likelihood of Narendra Modi being questioned, and now Rajasthan leaders being studied by the CBI, the Sohrabuddin case is likely to become an even larger worry for the BJP than it has been for the past few years.