A local court today issued arrest warrants against five policemen, including three from Rajasthan, in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The warrants were issued by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate K J Upadhyay after the Gujarat CID filed an application that neither of them had replied to their summons regarding the case. The agency had sought the arrest warrants under Section 70 of the CrPC.

CID (Crime), which is investigating the fake encounter case, had moved an application before the court seeking arrest warrant against seven policemen. According to CID sources, after the arrest of three IPS officials on April 25, lower rank officials absconded, fearing arrests in the case.

Of the five policemen, SI N P Chauhan and Inspector V A Rathod of the Gujarat Police are on leave since April 28. Inspector Abdul Rehman, Shyam Singh, who is on two month’s leave since April 24 and Himanshu Singh Rajavan of the Rajasthan Police are also on leave.

The anticipatory bail petition filed by the three Rajasthan policemen will come up for hearing tomorrow. The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court has issued arrest warrant against them on Monday.

In their petition, Rehman, Shyam and Himanshu have contented that

• They had cooperated with the process of investigation

• The firearm, which was allegedly used during the Sohrabuddin encounter, has already been recovered from the petitioners

• As far as their alleged role in Kausar Bi’s murder is concerned, they had already returned to Udaipur on November 26, the day after Sohrabuddin’s encounter and never went back to Ahmedabad. So the petitioners played no role in this incident

... contd.