SC questions AP police role in Sohrabuddin encounter

“What was the motive of the Andhra Pradesh police to join the conspiracy? What could have actuated their action when it was not officially done,” a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam who is acting as amicus curiae  in the matter.

The bench posed the query in response to the allegation by Subramaniam that the AP police had given logistic support to the Gujarat police in carrying out the killings. The apex court’s query assumes significance since AP is ruled by the Congress and Gujarat by the BJP. Besides the AP police, the role of the Rajasthan police also figured during the investigations.

The amicus curiae, who sought transfer of the investigations to an independent investigating agency like the CBI or the SIT, submitted that the AP police had a definite role in extending help to the Gujarat police in carrying out the killings.

He, however, said the AP police had disowned any type of official support to the encounter or rather the state took the plea that the encounter might have been conducted with the “illegal” help of some of its officers. The allegation is that the two vehicles carrying police personnel from Andra Pradesh had escorted the three victims from the state to Gujarat to facilitate the killings.

The amicus curiae charged there were a number of loose ends in the investigations now being conducted by the Gujarat police as the state government had been consistently making efforts to shield the accused. He submitted that due to consistent efforts by Gujarat to shield the actual culprits, no efforts had been made till date to establish how Sohrabuddin’s wife Kauser Bi and the couple’s accomplice Tulsiram Prajapati had been killed.