Cong, CPM seek probe into Guj false encounters

NEW DELHI: A day after the arrest of three IPS officers in Gujarat for killing a man in a fake encounter on charges he was conspiring to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi, the Congress and the CPM have demanded a probe into the incident as well as an investigation into encounter deaths during the BJP regime.

While the Congress has asked the Supreme Court to ensure that an ‘independent agency’ investigates all cases of ‘alleged false encounters’, the CPM has asked for a CBI inquiry into the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his missing wife.

The Marxist party has also demanded an investigation into “such encounter killings since 2002”. The incident, which has reopened the politically-charged issue of targeting of Muslims by Mr Modi’s government, comes just months before elections to the Gujarat assembly.

The three IPS officers — D G Vanzara, deputy inspector-general of the Gujarat Border Range, R K Pandian superintendent of police in the Intelligence Bureau and MN Dinesh of the Rajasthan Police were arrested by the Gujarat police on Tuesday.

The Congress, which has begun its campaign preparations for Gujarat with rallies by party president Sonia Gandhi, also hinted at the possibility of Mr Modi’s involvement in the case by demanding to know if the police officers “have a godfather and who is he”.

The party wants the Supreme Court to oversee the investigations in this incident as it had done in the Hawala case. Maintaining that terrorists must be dealt with “zero tolerance”, the Congress said it was the “duty of Courts to investigate the root-cause of such false encounters and ask the question whether these encounters are meant to send a message or make a statement” and at “whose behest and for whose benefit” were they being made.

Attacking Mr Modi, who has been addressing election rallies for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Congress leader and Union minister Kapil Sibal said: “In the context of this expose, I would like to ask what message Mr Narendra Modi has been trying to give to the people of UP?

He has been saying in his campaign meetings that the people of that state should look at Gujarat as a role model. What sort of role model is he talking about? Do these encounters represent the so called ‘Gujarat pride’?”. A statement put out by the party also attacked the Gujarat government for having “no respect for the rule of the law”.

The CPM, for its part, also targeted the “lawlessness of the authorities and the shocking state of affairs under Modi government”. Describing this incident of fake encounter as the “tip of the iceberg”, it said there have reportedly been a dozen cases of encounters by the Gujarat police since 2002.

The party alleged that the “Gujarat Government’s “shameful communal stance provided the cover for delinquent police officers to kill innocent people with no fear of questions being asked as long as they are termed terrorists and as long as they belong to the minority community”.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a Madhya Pradesh-based criminal, was allegedly killed in a gun battle on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on November 26, 2005 during a joint operation by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Rajasthan police. He was described by the police officers as a Lashkar-e-Toiba cadre.