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Project: cleanup of Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter.

TODO:

  1. Lede
  2. Sohrabuddin Sheikh
  3. Kidnapping and murder
  4. Exposure and investigation
    1. Supreme Court investigation
    2. CBI inquiry
  5. Political controversies
    1. Marble market corruption
    2. Amit Shah

Sohrabuddin Sheikh

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Sohrabuddin Sheikh
Born1972[1]
Died(2005-11-26)November 26, 2005
near Ahmedabad, India
NationalityIndian
Other namesSohrabuddin Shaikh
Occupation(s)Criminal; alleged terrorist
Known forVictim of a faked police encounter killing

Sohrabuddin Sheikh (1972[1] - 26 November 2005) was a criminal and alleged terrorist in Madhya Pradesh, India who was murdered in a faked police encounter by the Gujarat state police. Several senior police officials and the Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, were arrested in connection with the murder. The subsequent, ongoing criminal Supreme Court case and the international controversy surrounding the incident has had strong political repercussions.

--- The Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter was an Indian criminal case with strong political repercussions. The encounter began when the Gujarat state police staged the killing of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a known criminal and alleged terrorist on 26 November 2005. The state government's lawyer A T S Tulsi later admitted before the Supreme Court of India that the "gun battle" in which Shaikh had died had been staged by the Gujarat police [2] - such battles are known as "encounter killings" in India[3][4].

The killing was orchestrated by senior police officers of the Indian Police Service, and was allegedly ordered by Gujarat Minister for Hhome Amit Shah.[5] Shah, a senior politician in the Bharatiya Janata Party government and a close confidant of chief minister Narendra Modi, was allegedly involved in a gigantic scale extortion racket.[6] The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry is ongoing, and is now focusing on the highest levels of state government, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi[7] and Gulab Chand Kataria, a senior BJP leader and ex-minister from neighbouring Rajasthan state[8].

The police had initially claimed Sohrabuddin as a terrorist with Lashkar-e-Toiba connections, and had died while trying to escape. Then, in a media expose by journalist Prashant Dayal, followed by a Supreme Court mediated inquiry conducted by the state Criminal Investigation Department revealed the fake encounter, and several top police officers were arrested. However, the role of the state political leaders began to unravel after the Supreme Court ordered the inquiry to be transferred out of the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation in January 2010.

The case is currently seen as one of the weakest moments for the BJP government of Gujarat, which had won a third term in 2007[9]. Narendra Modi is also being investigated[10] in the 2002 Gujarat riots, where minister, Maya Kodnani, was arrested for murder.[11]

Sohrabuddin Sheikh

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Sohrabuddin lived in the village of Jharnia, Madhya Pradesh, India with his wife, Kauser Bi. He was an established criminal[12], and at the time of his death at age 33, he had 25 open criminal cases against him: fifteen in Madhya Pradesh, six in Gujarat, two in Maharashtra, and one in Rajasthan.[1]

Sohrabuddin was affiliated with the Abdul Latif gang and indirectly with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim through his mentor Abid Khan. [1] He chiefly operated in Udaipur, Ahmedabad and Ujjain. [12] At the time of his death, he was involved in an extortion racket involving the marble industry. [1]

Marble market extortion

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At the time of his death, Sohrabuddin was involved in an extortion racket in Rajasthan, where he had targeted the Rs 5,000-crore (Rs 50,000,000,000) marble industry.

Kidnapping and murder

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On 23 November 2005, Sohrabuddin and his wife, Kauser Bi, were travelling on a public bus from Hyderabad to Sangli, Maharashtra. At 01:30 AM, the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Gunjarat police boarded the bus and took the pair into custody. They were held in the Disha farmhouse outside Ahmedabad.[12]

Sohrabuddin was killed three days later on a highway at Vishala Circle near Ahmedabad in a staged gun battle with four police inspectors from the Anti-Terror Squad. After the battle, known as an "encounter killing" in India[3], Sohrabuddin was taken to a civilian hospital, where he was pronounced dead.[6] Anti-Terror Squad Chief D.G. Vanzara, who had brought Sohrabuddin to the encounter location and participated in the event, claimed Sohrabuddin was a terrorist, and that he had been attempting to attack Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat.[12]

On 28 November 2005, Kausar Bi, who had been kept sedated, was taken to the Arhan Farmhouse. There, she was allegedly offered a bribe to leave the country. Upon refusing, she was allegedly strangled and cremated in D.G. Vanzara's native village of Illol.[13][4]

Exposure and investigation

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There were initially no media reports about the incident. Several months after the encounter killing, police inspectors boasted about the incident to journalist Prashant Dayal. After investigating the Arhan farmhouse and the riverbank at Illol, Dayal was able to confirm that a woman had been cremated there. He broke the story in November 2006 in the leading Gujarati language newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, detailing the faked police encounter and the murder of Kauser Bi.[2]

At the same time, Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin petitioned the Supreme Court of India to investigate the Gujarat police's claim of an encounter killing. Rubabuddin claimed that the police encounter had been faked, and he demanded to know the whereabouts of Kauser Bi.[citation needed]

Supreme Court investigation

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In March 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to conduct a time-bound investigation. The investigation was conducted by police officer Geeta Johri under the command of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajnish Rai. Officer Johri reported the results of her investigation directly to the Court. She concluded that the police encounter had been faked. The evidence she collected implicated thirteen police officers, and led to their subsequent arrests in of thirteen police officers. [14]

Among the thirteen arrested officers were DIG D.G. Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, and M.N. Dinesh. According to the evidence, Vanzara, a close associate of Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gunjarat, was transferred across several high-ranking positions in order to orchestrate the killing. Rajkumar Pandian was a Superintendent of Police serving in the Intelligence Bureau. Rajasthan police officer M.N. Dinesh was alleged to have been working at the behest of marble lobbyists and BJP political leaders in Rajasthan[8].

In March 2007, the Supreme court ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a time-bound investigation. Police officer Geeta Johri was charged with conducting the investigation, and was to report directly to the court. She carefully gathered evidence underlining the role of several police officers in the fake encounter. However, she may have "steered clear of linking them to a political conspiracy"[14]. Based on the careful evidence collected by Johri, DIG Police, Rajnish Rai on April 24, 2007, arrested DIG (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, Superintendent of police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M N Dinesh of Rajasthan police, who is alleged to have been working at the behest of the marble lobby and BJP political leaders in Rajasthan[8].

On April 30, 2007, the Gujarat government admitted before the Supreme Court that Kauserbi, wife of fake encounter victim Sohrabuddin Sheikh, has been killed and her body burnt.[15]

The Supreme Court also asked the Gujarat government to place before it the inquiry reports prepared by Indian Police Service officer Geetha Johri, which allegedly had said Soharabuddin was killed in a fake encounter. Johri had been removed from the investigation after this report.[15] On May 3, the court asked the government whether Johri had been dismissed from the investigation so that a further probe wouldn't be carried out, and directed it to submit a final report on May 15, the day it will give the final order.[16]

CBI inquiry

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Despite the detailed nature of the Geetha Johri report, the Supreme Court felt impelled, given the allegations of involvement by senior politicians, that the case should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, by which investigation would be carried out by the federal police. Since 2007, the Gujarat government strongly resisted these attempts[17], though the Geetha Johri report itself recommends a CBI enquiry.[18]

Meanwhile, media pressure was building up, with calls from organizations such as Amnesty International[19]. Eventually, on 12 January 2010, the "Narendra Modi government suffered a setback"[20] with the Supreme Court observing that "the facts surrounding his death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness."[20]. With this order, the court directed the CBI, which is a central organization, to take over the probe.

Subsequently the CBI arrested senior Indian Police Service official Abhay Chudasama, who is charged with extortion in partnership with Sohrabuddin Shaikh.[21]. However, Abhay Chudasama himself may have been a front end, and the CBI has now chargesheeted ex-minister Amit Shah with running the extortion racket[6].

Suspicion of political interference intensified after the evidence handed over to the CBI from the state investigations showed that 331 phone calls by Amit Shah to the concerned police officers had been deleted from the records[22]. After media reports revealed the original records of calls from Amit Shah to Vanzara and other police officers executing the killings, the CBI acquired the original records, and ex-police chief O.P. Mathur, who had been given the plum post-retirement post as director Raksha Shakti University, was indited for deleting evidence[22]. Currently, Shah is named as the "prime accused" in the case[23].

Meanwhile, BJP ministers, Gulab Chand Kataria and Om Mathur (Om Prakash Mathur) from the neighbouring BJP-governed state of Rajasthan, have been named in the case. Apparently a CBI witness has claimed that they were paid Rs. 10 crores to eliminate Sohrabuddin by RK Patni, the owner of RK marbles[24], who was also close to some Indian National Congress leaders[25]. Kataria, who visited Gujarat to lobby for the release of Rajasthan police officer Dinesh MN in 2007[8], has denied the charges[26].

Political controversies

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Marble market corruption

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Amit Shah

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Geetha Johri was removed from the investigation after her report, which contained a direct reference to "the collusion of [the] State government in the form of Shri Amit Shah, MOS for Home.... [the episode] makes a complete mockery of the rule of law and is perhaps an example of the involvement of [the] State government in a major crime."[18] In Part B of the report, she records facts relating to repeated attempts by the accused police officers and Mr. Shah to sabotage the Supreme Court mandated enquiry. The report states that Mr. Shah "brought to bear pressure" on the enquiry process, with the result that Ms. Johri was directed to suspend the enquiry and the enquiry papers were taken away from her "under the guise of scrutiny." Mr. Shah even "directed Shri G.C. Raigar, Additional Director General of Police, CID (Crime & Railways) to provide him with the list of witnesses, both police and private, who are yet to be contacted by CID (Crime) for recording their statement in the said enquiry. Such direction of Minister of State for Home goes beyond the scope of his office, was patently illegal and apparently designed to provide the same list to accused police officers... so as to enable them to take measures in their defence."[18]

The government was asked by the court to give the reason for Johri's removal from the case on May 15[27]. Not finding the Gujarat governments explanations satisfactory, the bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P K Balasubramanyam ruled that Inspector General Ms. Johri would report directly to the Supreme Court. She was reinstated in the same position and also asked to head the fake encounter case involving top police officials from Gujarat. She was also told to ignore the instructions of Director General of Police in relation to the case[28].

Continuing investigation

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Encounter cops bribed to kill?. Ibnlive.in.com (2010-02-03). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  2. ^ a b The journalist who cracked Gujarat fake encounter case
  3. ^ a b "Gujarat admits wrongful killing". British Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  4. ^ a b "Gujarat says missing wife killed". BBC News. 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  5. ^ Vicky Nanjappa (24 July 2010). "What CBI chargesheet against Amit Shah says". Retrieved 1 August 2010. quote: "The CBI states Sohrabuddin was trying to extort money from owners of marble factories in Rajasthan... and threatened the owners of RK Marbles. ... At this juncture, the CBI chargesheet alleges Amit Shah came into the picture and ordered Sohrabuddin's killing."
  6. ^ a b c "Amit & coterie ran extortion racket". Hindustan Times. 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2010-08-01. quote: “The fake encounter of Sohrabuddin is a case of extortion involving senior officials of the Gujarat police like Vanzara, Pandian, Chudasama and N.K. Amin in connivance with their political boss, Amit Shah... A witness gave a statement saying he had paid Rs 70 lakh to Amit Shah to settle a case in which he was implicated." Cite error: The named reference "ht" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ Move Sohrabuddin case outside Gujarat: CBI Jul 31, 2010, quote: "The CBI sought the transfer of the trial... to a court outside Gujarat, telling the Supreme Court that it needed to investigate people higher than former home minister Amit Shah - a euphemism for chief minister Narendra Modi"
  8. ^ a b c d Other States / Rajasthan News : Kataria denies any role in Sohrabuddin case. The Hindu. Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  9. ^ Oranges For Lemons. www.outlookindia.com. Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  10. ^ SC asks for Modi's speech details for Godhra probe - Politics News - IBNLive. Ibnlive.in.com (2010-02-03). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  11. ^ The rise and fall of Maya Kodnani
  12. ^ a b c d Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?. Ndtv.com (2010-07-23). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  13. ^ [1] quote: "CBI sources said, after Sohrabuddin was allegedly, Kauserbi was given sleeping pills and kept under sedation. She was given the temptation of settling outside India, besides lakhs of rupees as compensation. When she refused all such deals, she was allegedly strangulated.
    Her body was taken to Illol, Vanzara’s native place, where it was burnt near Sabarmati riverbank. The ashes were then collected and immersed in the Narmada river from Golden Bridge in Bharuch."
  14. ^ a b Who is Geeta Johri?. Ndtv.com (2010-07-30). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  15. ^ a b Kauser Bi killed, body burnt; Gujarat govt to SC
  16. ^ Gujarat fake encounter: SC order on May 15
  17. ^ "Centre for CBI enquiry into Gujarat encounters". Rediff.com. 2007-04-26. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  18. ^ a b c "Geetha Johri report speaks of "collusion of State government"". The Hindu. 2007-05-05. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  19. ^ India: A pattern of unlawful killings by the Gujarat police: Urgent need for effective investigations
  20. ^ a b Supreme Court assigns Sohrabuddin case to CBI. Ndtv.com. Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  21. ^ Abhay, Sohrab had 75:25 partnership in extortion business quote: "On Chudasama's instructions, Sohrabuddin issued threats to businessmen and demanded money. The harried traders would rush to police with their complaints. Chudasama would then demand huge sums of money in the name of extending police help and Sohrabuddin got his share too."
  22. ^ a b Another top cop under scanner for ‘erasing’ Amit Shah reference in CD
  23. ^ India's Independent Weekly News Magazine. Tehelka. Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  24. ^ 'Rs 10 crore paid to ministers, cops to kill Sohrabuddin'. Ndtv.com (2010-07-31). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  25. ^ Sohrabuddin case: Congress red-faced too - Politics - Politics News - ibnlive. Ibnlive.in.com (2010-02-03). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  26. ^ Ex-Minister denies being paid for Sohrabuddin encounter. Indianexpress.com (2010-08-01). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  27. ^ Gujarat encounter probe in right direction: SC. Rediff.com (2004-12-31). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.
  28. ^ SC rejects CBI inquiry. Expressindia.com (2007-05-17). Retrieved on 2010-08-29.


Category:Politics of Gujarat Category:Extrajudicial killings Category:2005 in India

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