Moving quickly before the Supreme Court decides tomorrow on whether the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case warrants a CBI inquiry, Gujarat police have managed to obtain what they say are “confessions” by three arrested IPS officers that Kausar Bi, Sheikh’s wife, was also killed soon after her husband in November, 2005.

Police sources said that apart from the three IPS officers — Border Range DIG D G Vanjhara, SP (Operations) Raj Kumar Pandian, and Alwar (Rajasthan) SP M N Dinesh are in police custody until

May 5 — they have questioned and videotaped “confession statements” of at least seven policemen in connection with Kausar Bi’s murder. Efforts are being made to turn some of them approvers to fast-track investigation.

The “confessions”, sources said, give graphic details about Kausar Bi’s killing at a Gandhinagar farmhouse and her body being burnt in the ravines of Illol village in Sabarkantha district.

The three arrested officers were taken by the CID (Crime) to places related to the killing both yesterday and today. During the last hearing of the case, the Supreme Court was told by Gujarat investigators that based on interrogation of the arrested officers they had crucial leads on Kausar Bi’s murder.

Sources in the investigating team said that help had been sought from forensic experts in Gandhinagar to collect material evidence from the identified spots. “A forensic team accompanied us to the spots to help us gather some remains of Kausar. The well in the Illol bungalow of Vanjhara, where ashes of Kausar were reportedly thrown, is also likely to be dug up on Thursday,” said sources.

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