The Gujarat Government today told the Supreme Court that Kausar Bi, wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was killed in a fake encounter, “might have been dead.”

Sheikh and his wife were picked up by a Gujarat police team in November 2005. Sheikh was killed and the Anti-Terrorist Squad claimed he was a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative.

“There is a fair suspicion that she (Kausar Bi) might have been dead. We really do not know where and what happened to her,” K T S Tulsi, senior advocate appearing on behalf of Gujarat Government, told the Bench of Justices Tarun Chaterjee and P K Balasubramanyam.

The Bench asked the State to place a conclusive report, on whether it would be able to locate Kausar Bi or not, in two days. The court also asked the state to submit four interim reports prepared by Geeta Johri, IGP CID (Crime).

Bi has been missing since the encounter.

Three IPS officers were arrested this week after the Supreme Court issued directions on the petition filed by Rubabuddin Sheikh, Sohrabuddin’s brother, seeking a CBI probe and directions to locate his sister-in-law.

The Centre today strongly pressed for a CBI probe with Attorney-General Milon K Banerjee saying that he was performing “a Constitutional duty” in making such a request. The Gujarat Government counsel vehemently opposed it. “Why is the Attorney General playing politics? The State has already taken so much of action and even the arrests of police officers have been made after so much of in-depth investigations,” he added. While the arguments were being made, the petitioner’s counsel feared that the case might suffer.

... contd.