Sohrabuddin case: Cooperate or face arrest, CBI tells top cops

Ahmedabad: The CBI is learnt to have stepped up pressure on top Gujarat cops like Geeta Johri to spill the beans on the Sohrabuddin case or face arrest. Sources say the CBI has incriminating documents to show that top policemen worked closely with politicians to scuttle investigations in the case.

As it calls in more and more top policemen for questioning for what the CBI says was a gigantic cover-up, at the core of the inquiry now are the questions: Was the cover up at the behest of former minister Amit Shah? How did this cover-up take place?

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.

Sources have told NDTV that the CBI has conveyed to both PC Pandey and Rajkot Police Commissioner Geeta Johri that they will land in big trouble if they do not co-operate. The CBI officers in Ahmedabad have, in fact, sought permission from headquarters to arrest them if they do not do so.

Pandey seems to be in serious trouble, sources said, as the CBI has taken into record an order he passed to include a former senior IPS officer Abhay Chudasma in the State CID team. (Read: CBI summons former Gujarat top cop PC Pande)

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Chudasma was arrested this year in April by the CBI on charges of destruction of evidence and trying to hamper the probe into the Sohrabuddin case.

Amit Shah is in jail on charges of murdering Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a young Muslim man, and his wife, Kauser Bi. 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 Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (Read - Amit Shah case: Why CBI wants to interrogate Modi).

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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. (Read: CBI says Amit Shah is not cooperating)

The Role of Top Cops

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In 2006, Geeta 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 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.

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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 policemen 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 the case, and gave the agency six months to file a report. (Sohrabuddin killed for money and politics: CBI chargesheet)