The lawyer of Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, whose discharge in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case has been challenged in the Bombay High Court, on Saturday alleged in the court that he was framed up by the CBI.
Pandian had a stellar record, and he was the “main” officer who had taken on fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI of Pakistan when he was with the IB, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, his lawyer, told the court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case from the Gujarat CID in 2010, framed Pandian by fabricating evidence, he alleged. “I [Pandian] have unimpeachable documentary evidence to prove that I was not in Hyderabad on the day of the alleged abduction,” Mr. Jethmalani contended.
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As per the CBI, Sohrabuddin, a gangster with alleged terror links, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati were abducted by the Gujarat police on the intervening night of November 22 and 23, 2005 while they were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in a private bus.
“I had taken a flight from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad on November 23, 2005... However, the CBI claims I never took that flight and instead sent constable Ajay Parmar to Ahmedabad on my ticket as a cover-up,” the lawyer said.
The CBI presented, as evidence, the custom declaration form submitted at the Hyderabad airport, filled in Pandian’s name but bearing Parmar’s signature, Mr. Jethmalani said.
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“This is a fabricated document. I am a victim... The victim of false investigation by the CBI,” Mr. Jethmalani said.