Dara encounter: CBI seeks protection for probe team

The matter is being pursued by the CBI team in Jaipur,said a top agency official.

The Dara Singh fake encounter case has taken a new turn,with the CBI reportedly requesting protection for its team investigating and escorting the accused,who include two IPS officers.

The Rajasthan Home Department has said it received a request from the CBI last week stating that its personnel had received threats from the accused and seeking CRPF protection. The state government says it declined the same,pointing out that CRPF was under the Union Home Ministry and offered police protection instead.

The CBI requested that CRPF protection be provided to their personnel as they have received threats. However,CRPF is not under state jurisdiction, Rajasthan Additional Chief Secretary P K Deb told The Indian Express. He directed Rajasthan DGP H C Meena to ensure that police protection was provided,Deb added.

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Sources in the agency in New Delhi,however,denied requesting protection for its personnel,saying that while the CBI Director had written to the Rajasthan Home Department,it was over protection for witnesses in the case.

Since most of the accused in the case are high-profile and senior police officials from Rajasthan,there is a threat to witnesses. The Director is learnt to have asked the Home Department to provide security to witnesses other than that from Rajasthan Police. The matter is being pursued by the CBI team in Jaipur, said a top agency official.

Since the CBI began investigating the sensitive case,it has faced the ire of relatives of the accused,particularly in court.

Incidentally,the defence counsel for police officials arrested in the fake encounter is trying to use the reported CBI plea in favour of his clients. On Tuesday,Advocate A K Jain filed a contempt of court application with a Jaipur court,claiming that the CBI claim could hamper the investigation but the agency had failed to bring it to the courts notice but instead gone directly to the government. The court has ordered the CBI to file their reply by August 1.

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On October 23,2006,a team of the state Special Operations Group had gunned down Dara Singh in an encounter in Jaipur. The police claimed they were attempting to arrest Singh,a hardened criminal,when he fired at them and fled. The Supreme Court had ordered a CBI investigation following a petition filed by his wife Sushila Devi,who claimed her husband was killed in cold blood.