The CBI, which on Friday filed a charge sheet against 15 accused persons including Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah in an Ahmedabad court in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, has made a prayer that the probe be kept open for conducting further investigation under Section 173(B) of the Criminal Procedure Code to get to the root of the larger conspiracy.
“The CBI has filed the charge sheet within the stipulated period of 90 days after effecting the arrest of one of the accused,” CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said in a statement here.
The Supreme Court had directed the CBI to look into all aspects of the killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi, and also into the larger conspiracy.
“The CBI registered a case on February 1, 2010 under Sections 120(B) read with 365, 368, 302, and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Prior to the registration of this case, the CID (Crime), Gujarat, had filed a charge sheet in the court against 13 accused persons. One more person was arraigned as accused on the application of a Deputy Superintendent of Police and the DIG of Police, Gujarat,” the statement said.
The accused named in the charge sheet are DIG D.G. Vanzara; Superintendents of Police Rajkumar Pandian and M.N. Dinesh; Deputy Superintendents M. L. Parmar and N.K. Amin; inspectors N.H. Dabhi, B.R. Chaubey and Abdul Rehman Shaikh; sub-inspectors, N.V. Chauhan, Himanshu Singh Rajavat and Shyam Singh Charan; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, Abhay Chudasma; Mr. Amit Shah, whose name was added during the investigation; ADC Bank chairman Ajay Patel and director Yeshpal Chudasma, both of whose names were also added during the investigation and were not arrested.
The spokesperson said the CBI had not found adequate evidence against three accused who were earlier sent for trial — Ajay Parmar and Sant Ram Sharma, constables of the Ahmedabad Anti-Terrorism Squad; and B.A. Rathore, Inspector of the Ahmedabad ATS. Hence they were not included in the charge sheet.
The CBI examined 278 witnesses and collected 191 documents and 70 material objects. The probe was spread over Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
