The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Gujarat government seeking a review of its judgement directing a CBI probe into the killing of gangster Soharabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter in 2005. The apex court also declined to expunge the remarks against senior IPS officer Geeta Johri,who had headed the team investigating the case in which Kauser Bi,wife of Sheikh was also eliminated by the Gujarat police. A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Cyriac Joseph did not find merits in the review petition filed by the state government as also by Johri. Gujarat government had sought a review of the January 12 verdict directing a CBI probe on the ground that the state agencies were holding proper investigation. Johri had contended that the adverse remarks were passed against her without giving her an opportunity to be heard. Johri suffered a second setback within a day as the apex court had yesterday ordered the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the Gujarat riots of 2002 to keep her out of the panel till further order. In the January 12 verdict,a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee (since retired) and Aftab Alam had come down heavily on Gujarat government for failing to conduct impartial investigations and attempting to "mislead" the apex court by filing conflicting Action Taken Reports (ATRs) in the Sohrabuddin encounter case. "From the factual discrepancies appearing in eight Action Taken Reports and from the chargesheet,we,therefore,feel that the police authorities of the state of Gujarat had failed to carry out a fair and impartial investigation as we initially wanted them to do. "It cannot be questioned that the offences the high police officials have committed were of grave nature which needs to be strictly dealt (with)," the apex court had said while directing the CBI probe. It asked CBI to probe if there was any "larger conspiracy" behind the killings and submit the report within six months for its perusal. Suspended DIG D G Banjara and R K Pandiyan (both Gujarat cadre IPS officers) besides Dinesh M N (Rajasthan cadre IPS officer) are the main accused in the case of killing of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Sheikh was killed by the Gujarat cops with the help of Andhra Pradesh police claiming he was planning to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The apex court had expressed displeasure at the failure of the Gujarat police's special investigation team headed by Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri to identify the seven Andhra Pradesh police personnel who assisted the local police in the encounter. The court had concluded that there were large-scale discrepancies in the investigation into the case after it was handed over to Johri. The apex court had said that it would be appropriate to order a CBI inquiry to instill confidence among the relatives of the deceased and the people as those involved inthe crime are high-ranking police officials. The bench had rejected Gujarat government's argument that once the chargesheet had been filed the court has no power to transfer the investigation to another agency. Sohrabuddin,along with Kauser Bi and another person,was picked up during a joint operation by the police of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh from a bus on their way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra on November 22,2005. He was gunned down in a fake encounter by the Gujarat police's Anti-Terrorist Squad which claimed he had come to the city to eliminate Chief Minsiter Narendra Modi. The accused cops also killed Kauser Bi and their accomplice Tulsi Ram Prajapati to destroy evidence. Gujarat government had admitted in the apex court that Soharabuddin was killed in a fake encounter and his wife was also eliminated as she was witness to the offence.
