Sohrabuddin case: SC to take up CBI report today

The Supreme Court will take up on Thursday the status report filed by the CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which Amit Shah, a former Gujarat minister and a close aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has been arrested.

The Supreme Court will take up on Thursday the status report filed by the CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which Amit Shah, a former Gujarat minister and a close aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has been arrested.

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The CBI on July 30 had filed the status report in a sealed cover into its six-month-old investigation in the case in which it has questioned not only Shah but several senior IPS officers, who were associated with the state police when the fake encounter took place in 2005.

Sources said that the investigating agency has submitted voluminous records to support its allegation of involvement of state's top police brass in fake encounter case.

The CBI had interrogated Shah in its custody on August 7 and 8 and the outcome of the questioning is likely to be spelled out before a bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha where the petition filed by Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh is listed for hearing tomorrow.

The hearing before the apex court assumes importance as it is for the first time it will go into the case after it had on January 12 ordered the CBI to probe the alleged fake encounter, giving the agency six months to submit it progress report.

The issue of suspended DSP NK Amin, an accused in the case who has expressed his desire to turn approver is likely to come up before the apex court which in the past has rejected a couple of applications by him seeking bail.

The CBI had told the special court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday that it has no objections to Amin becoming an approver on the condition that he makes true disclosures about the case.

Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad on November 26, 2005.

The sources said the CBI has given full details about its investigation which had led to the arrest of Shah and, in the status report, the agency has sought six months extention as it may then extend its arm of probe to neighbouring state of Rajasthan as one of the senior IPS officers from there has already been chargesheeted in the case.

The report had said that it has to plug the loopholes to complete the sequence of events as earlier investigations have given a sketchy findings about Tulsiram Prajapati who was allegedly accompanying Soharabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi in the bus from which the victims were allegedly picked up. Prajapati, an eyewitness to Sohrabuddin's killing, was also killed in a police encounter in the end of 2006.

The sources said the extension of time has also been sought by the CBI to probe the disappearance of Prajapati.

The Supreme Court on January 12 had handed over the investigation of the case to the CBI asking it to place before it the report on the progress of the probe within six months by July 31.