Skeletons Come Stumbling Out Of Modi Cabinet
By Nachiketa Desai
13 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
In what amounts to a blatant case of contempt of the Supreme Court,
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat took to streets on
Wednesday in support of a rogue police officer arrested by the Central
Bureau of Investigation on the charge of fake encounter killing of
Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi. Deputy police commissioner
(crime branch) Abhay Chudasama was arrested by the CBI for having
played a key role in stage managing the fake encounter of the couple.
With the arrest of Chudasama, four top cops have landed in jail.
Other IPS officers arrested by the state CID earlier in the
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case are DG Vanzara and Rajkumar
Pandiyan of Gujarat cadre, and MN Dinesh of Rajasthan cadre. The three
IPS officers along with 11 other policemen are still in
jail.Chudasama's arrest is the first to be made by the CBI after the
Supreme Court handed over the investigation of the case to the probe
agency on January 12, 2010. The apex court had asked the central
agency to probe if there was a larger conspiracy behind the killings,
and submit its report in six months.
At the time of killing Sohrabuddin, the Gujarat police had claimed
that he was on his way to Gandhinagar, the state capital, to
assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi. The bluff was called after
Sohrabuddin's brother moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat
police version.
Sohrabuddin, a known criminal, used to extort money from Udaipur-based
marble stone traders who, with their political connection, are alleged
to have contracted Gujarat police officer Vanzara to kill the
extortionist.
The arrest of Vanzara and 11 other policemen was first made by the
Gujarat police. At the time, the BJP did not raise any hue and cry.
However, the state BJP leaders were quick to react after the CBI,
entrusted with the investigation by the Supreme Court, arrested
Ahmedabad city crime branch officer Chudasama. According to the CBI,
Chudasama was a rogue cop who used to extort money from leading
businessmen saying he would engineer their encounter in the same
manner in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed, if they did not
pay him protection money.
The CBI also stumbled upon property in the form of two luxury
apartments in Ahmedabad worth at least Rs 2 crore belonging to the DCP
crime branch. What made the BJP leaders take to the street over the
arrest of that rogue cop? Was the cop so close to the ruling party?
Though the BJP accused the Union government of misusing the CBI to
tarnish the image of the Narendra Modi government, the party
conveniently forgets the fact that the CBI was handed over the
investigation not by the Manmohan Singh Government but by the Supreme
Court.
The Supreme Court has also constituted a special investigation team to
inquire into the role of the state government and chief minister
Narendra Modi into the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. SIT has already
interrogated Modi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia in
this context.
