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SC pulls up Gujarat Govt
The Gujarat Government on Thursday came in the line of fire of the Supreme Court after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accused the State for having “withheld” portion of call records crucial for investigating the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
For the badly bruised CBI, whose investigation in the case has come under serious cloud following two of its allegations — an extortion racket run at the behest of former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah and the accused influencing trial through their kith and kin in judiciary — proving to be false, it was a saving grace as the court directed the State Government to produce the entire set of call records on Wednesday.
The apex bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai were furious after they were informed by the amicus curiae and senior advocate Gopal Subramanium that CBI could have done little with the CDs at their disposal since they pertained to the period when Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in December 2006. The crucial call records at the time of Sohrabuddin encounter in November 2005 were not supplied to the investigating agency, Subramanium said.
The bench remarked, “It appears those CDs have been withheld in the impression they were of Prajapati. This is very disquieting that the CDs have been withheld.” For the CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vivek Tankha added to the state government’s woes that the complete set of call transcripts pertaining to all the accused had yet not been supplied to it. The bench sought an answer from the State. Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta sought time to check up the facts as he claimed the same was already supplied.
Subramanium pointed out that the call records, considered crucial to link the accused in the killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi, were in possession of the Gujarat Police. In an earlier application moved by the petitioner in the case, Rubabuddin Sheikh (Sohrabuddin’s brother), seeking re-investigation, the state informed the Court that the set of call records were available with the then DGP OP Mathur.
While CBI’s inability to secure the call records was evidence of its shoddy probe, the bench was flummoxed with the agency still not able to prove the “real” motive behind the Sohrabuddin killing as the role of AP cops still unexplained.
