A day after their arrest in connection with the November, 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter, Gujarat DIG (Border Range) D G Vanjhara, SP (IB) Rajkumar Pandian and Alwar SP M N Dinesh were sent to police custody for seven days by an Ahmedabad court.

Issuing the order today, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate K J Upadhyay directed that the three IPS officers be produced in court at 11 am on May 1. The CID (Crime) had asked for 14-days remand, saying the officers were not prepared to disclose any information and would, therefore, need to be questioned at length. Contending that the trio conspired to pass off Sohrabuddin’s “murder” as an encounter, the public prosecutor submitted that the investigating agency needed time to find and recover the vehicles and weapons used by the accused.

According to the prosecution, the CID investigation into the case revealed that the officers met in Vanjhara’s cabin a day before Sohrabuddin was killed. “The CID wants to get more details about the meeting,” the public prosecutor told the court. The prosecution sought their remand on 13 grounds, saying there were many questions that needed answers:

• If Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi were in ATS custody at Disha farmhouse in Gandhinagar on November 24, 2005 (as per the CID investigation), then how did an ATS police inspector get information that Sohrabuddin was on his way to Ahmedabad from Surat the same day?

• Kausarbi was in the farmhouse till around 10 am on the day her husband was killed. Where did she go after that?

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