A month after Gujarat admitted in the Supreme Court that a 2005 encounter had been faked and the man killed in it had been wrongly described as a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative who was targeting Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders, the state police today arrested three senior IPS officers, including one from Rajasthan, and charged them with murder.

Those arrested for the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh — his wife Kausar Bibi also disappeared — are D G Vanzara, DIG (Border Range), Rajkumar Pandian, SP (IB) and Dinesh Kumar, SP of Alwar in Rajasthan. Vanzara was DIG (Anti Terrorist Squad), Pandian its SP and Dinesh was SP (Udaipur) at the time of the incident.

Sheikh was killed on November 26, 2005. Police had then claimed that he was shot in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in a joint operation by the Gujarat ATS and Rajasthan Police.

Sheikh’s brother Rubabuddin had moved the Supreme Court in in January, 2006, demanding a CBI probe. The apex court directed the Gujarat government to report on the alleged encounter and the disappearance of Sheikh’s wife.

Vanzara and Pandian were called to the Gujarat police chief’s office today and arrested in the DGP’s presence. Dinesh, who was in Ahmedabad in connection with the probe into the killing, was also arrested. The arrests were made by investigating officer Rajnish Rai, DIG (CID), who has been re-investigating the case. The next hearing of the case in the Supreme Court is due in three days.

The CID also sealed the official residence of Vanzara in Bhuj following a search carried out this morning.

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