The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the central government’s plea for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the 2005 staged killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi by the Gujarat police.
A bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P K Balasubramanian turned down the plea for a CBI probe, ruling that the ongoing investigation by the Gujarat state police appeared to be “on the right track”.
The plea was moved by the central government as well as by Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of the slain Sohrabbudin Sheikh. Rubabuddin had earlier approached the apex court with a habeas corpus petition, demanding from the court the whereabouts of his brother’s wife, Kausar Bi, who was allegedly killed a few days after her husband was shot dead in November 2005.
The bench while dismissing the plea for a CBI probe, said that the investigations would be wholly supervised by Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri and the Gujarat police will not interfere with the probe.
On November 26, 2005, Gujarat police Deputy Inspector General D G Vanzara had announced that Sheikh was killed in a police shootout and dubbed him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist on a bid to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
On May 3 this year, the Gujarat government told the apex court that Kausar Bi too had been killed by the police on November 28, 2005. The couple’s associate Tulsiram Prajapati too had been shot dead by the police a month later or so.
The bench had on Tuesday reserved its order on the pleas for the CBI probe after an hour-long argument by the contesting sides during which the 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 out the probe efficiently.
Geeta Johri’s preliminary enquiry into the matter had led to the arrest of Vanzara and two other senior IPS officers.
The Gujarat police till now has arrested seven police officers, one of whom has confessed to the killings before a magistrate.

A breather for Modi
DH News Service, Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may well have raised a toast in Korea where he has flown with a business delegation to promote investments in the state in the wake of the Supreme Court decision not to entrust investigation into the fake encounter case with the CBI.
He may have attempted to show his nonchalance in the case by presenting a brave front, but the Supreme Court showed no confidence in the Gujarat government and its top police officer DGP P C Pande.The court stopped short of a CBI investigation, but its decision to monitor the case directly and its direction to DIG Geetha Johri to bypass the state and DGP and directly deliver the action taken report may prove to be disconcerting for the state government.
According to police sources, what the government may find more disturbing is the Supreme Court’s order to Ms Johri to find the motive behind the fake encounter.
“The court has in a way asked that if Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter and was not a terrorist, why was he killed in the first place and why were his wife Kausar Bi and eyewitness Tulsiram Prajapati eliminated. The answer to these questions will spill the beans on the police and state machinery,” a police official said.

Decision welcomed
Meanwhile, the BJP as well as the Congress welcomed the Supreme Court decision. Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil claimed that the decision was a stinging slap on the face of the BJP government and DGP P C Pande.