The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the Gujarat government seeking a review of its judgment directing a CBI probe into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case of 2005. It also dismissed a plea by senior IPS officer Geetha Johri to expunge adverse remarks made by the court about her conduct as a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the same case. A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Cyriac Joseph did not find merits in the review petition filed by the state as also by Johri. The government had sought a review of the January 12 verdict on the ground that the state agencies were holding proper investigation. It also refused to entertain Johris request to review the portions of the verdict that cast aspersions on her professional integrity in the probe. On Tuesday,a Special Bench of the apex court had directed SIT chief R K Raghavan not to include Johri and Shivanand Jha in any further investigation or monitoring of trials. A Bench led by Justice Tarun Chatterjee (since retired),while transferring the case to the CBI,had criticised investigating officer Johri for walking out of the investigation with respect to Tulsiram Prajapatis death without even informing this court. The Supreme Court had formed the SIT to specially investigate the encounter case. Sohrabbuddin Sheikh,his wife Kauser Bi and Prajapati were allegedly picked up by a police team on November 22,2005 and killed in a fake encounter. Johri was Inspector General of CID (Crime) during the investigation,in which the SIT filed eight action taken reports before the apex court. A 1982 batch IPS officer,he has made the State of Gujarat a party in the litigation along with Sohrabuddins brother,Rubabuddin Sheikh. The court had said that Johri,who is now the Rajkot Police Commissioner,had not been carrying out the investigation in the right manner. The court had in the same paragraph observed that it is of the view that Johris mentioning of the criminal background of Sohrabbuddin and the accused police officers discussion on Sohrabbuddin was only meant to obfuscate the inquiry. The remarks in the judgment had also clouded Johris status as the convenor of the SC-appointed SIT,which finally led to her removal from the probe team earlier this week. In the January 12 verdict,a bench of justices Tarun Chatterjee (since retired) and Aftab Alam had come down heavily on the Gujarat government for failing to conduct impartial investigations and attempting to mislead the court by filing conflicting Action Taken Reports (ATRs) in the Sohrabuddin case.
