Two more Gujarat cadre IPS officers—E Radhakrishna and Vipul Aggrawal—and some Andhra Pradesh Police personnel are likely to be questioned by investigators in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

According to the fourth part of Gujarat IGP (CID) Geetha Johri’s interim report, before abducting Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bibi from a Hyderabad-Sangli bus, a team led by SP Rajkumar Pandian reportedly spent two days in Hyderabad. Instead of meeting then Police Commissioner A K Mohanty, Pandian met former Gandhinagar SP, E Radhakrishna, who was deputed as Deputy Inspector General of Police, CRPF, Hyderabad.

Johri’s report said that on November 20, 2005, inspector N H Dabhi, constable Santram Sharma, drivers K Jadeja and Gurdial Singh left Ahmedabad in a Qualis and reached Hyderabad at 8 pm the next day. From there Dabhi called Pandian and then reached the official residence of Radhakrishna, where Pandian was already waiting. There is no further mention of Radhakrishna.

Banaskantha SP Vipul Aggrawal’s name appears in the second part of the report, which quotes extensively from the petition of Rubabuddin Sheikh, Sohrabuddin’s brother. Here too the report is mum on the exact role that Aggrawal played in the whole affair following a phone call from Dinesh Kumar. The two main witnesses in the Johri report, armed police constable Ajay Parmar and head constable Gurdial Singh Jaat, mention involvement of Andhra Pradesh policemen, paving the way for their questioning.

Much, however, would depend on how far Rajnish Rai, DIG (CID), who is investigating the case, is willing to go. On March 7 this year, three months behind his batch mates, he was promoted as DIG and posted to CID (Crime), Gandhinagar. Two days later, he was handed the Sohrabuddin case.

... contd.