Sohrabuddin case: CBI files supplementary charge-sheet

AHMEDABAD - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the Sohrabuddin staged shootout case before a special CBI court here.

In the charge-sheet filed before Special Judge G.K. Upadhyay, the CBI charged Rajendrakumar Jirawala, at whose farmhouse Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi were kept, for concealing the presence of the Sohrabuddin and his wife before they were killed in a staged shootout in 2005 and subsequent destruction of evidence.

According to the charge-sheet, as per corroboration of the personal assistant of Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Geetha Johri, Johri conveyed the instructions of then minister of state for home Amit Shah to police inspector V.L. Solanki to change the case papers so that the names of accused police officers - D.G. Vanzara, Raj Kumar Pandiyan and others - could be removed.

However, Solanki refused to obey these instructions, the charge-sheet stated.

As per the charge-sheet, Johri, the then investigating officer of the case, recorded in a note sheet that there was a systematic effort on the part of the certain agencies including police to tamper with the witnesses and evidences. Under the circumstances it was not possible for the SIT to meet the deadline of the Supreme Court and the directions given by the apex court, she wrote.

She also noted that “the government may please be therefore moved to handover the case to CBI for the purpose of meting out justice to the petitioners and maintain the image of Gujarat Police or making necessary changes in the SIT”. The CBI claimed that as per the notes of Johri, she was under tremendous pressure to tamper with the evidence and witnesses.

The CBI has added 70 witnesses and 37 documents in support of the charge-sheet.