IPS officer Geeta Johri, who was probing the 2005 fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and killing of his wife Kausar Bi, appeared before the CBI for questioning on Thursday.
The Central investigating agency had summoned the officer, who is currently posted as Commissioner of Rajkot, to appear on August 10, but Ms. Johri had then requested for more time as she had returned from a long leave.
In her request, Ms. Johri had said that since she has joined after a break she needed to get appraised on the case, before answering any questions.
The CBI has already interrogated Ms. Johri twice, after it began investigation into the fake encounter case following the Supreme court order in January this year.
The Supreme Court, while transferring the case to the CBI had minced no words in expressing displeasure at the failure of the Gujarat police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Ms. Johri.
The Supreme Court had also come down heavily on the Gujarat police for failing to conduct an impartial probe and attempting to “mislead” the Supreme Court by filing conflicting action taken reports (ATRs) in the case.
The court had said that while one of the investigating officers V.L. Solanki was proceeding in the right direction, Ms. Johri had not been carrying out the probe in the right manner.
Former State DGP P.C. Pande was also summoned by the CBI in the same case but he has not been able to appear before the agency as he was out of station.
After taking over the case from the Gujarat CID in January, the CBI has arrested former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah, currently lodged in Sabarmati Central jail, along with other 15 accused policemen in connection with the case.
