Sohrabuddin case: CBI summons investigating officer Geetha Johri,

Johri, who had headed the probe in the case while she was with state CID, is currently posted as Police Commissioner of Rajkot city.

The CBI, which began investigation into the encounter case following the Supreme court order in January, has already questioned Johri twice before.The apex court, while transferring the case to CBI, had minced no words in expressing displeasure at the failure of the state police's Special Investigation Team, headed by Inspector General of Police Johri, to identify the seven Andhra Pradesh police personnel who assisted the local police in the fake encounter.

Johri is in Britain at present and is expected to come back on August 6.
The CBI had yesterday summoned former state DGP P C Pandey and asked him to appear before it on August 11.

Pandey was the DGP when the state CID was investigating the fake encounter case. There have been allegations that some police officials of Gujarat had tried to influence the investigation into the incident.The Supreme Court had also come down heavily on the Gujarat police for failing to conduct impartial investigations and attempting to "mislead" the apex court by filing conflicting Action Taken Reports (ATRs) in the case.

It had further said that while one of the investigating officers V L Solanki was proceeding in the right direction, Johri had not been carrying out the investigation in the right manner.

The court had said in its January 12 order that Johri had not made any reference to the second report of Solanki, which was not forwarded to the court.The court had said that Johri mentioning the criminal background of Sohrabbuddin and the discussion among the accused officers concerning him was meant to obfuscate the enquiry.

The apex court had also asked the CBI to probe if there was any "larger conspiracy" behind the killings.

The CBI has arrested former Gujarat minister of state for home, Amit Shah, ex-DCP Abhay Chudasama and owner of a farm house Rajendra Jirawala where Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi were kept before being killed.

It has also filed chargesheet in the case which says that "elimination of Sohrabuddin was being used for extortion by the accused persons to establish an element of fear in the minds of the businessmen and others."

According to the chargesheet, Shah had entrusted the job to eliminate Sohrabuddin to other accused cops D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Chudasama