Sohrabuddin fake encounter: Senior IPS officer discharged

MUMBAI: The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Thursday discharged ’96 batch IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan from Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter

MUMBAI: The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Thursday discharged ’96 batch IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan from Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case on the technical ground that CBI did not have a sanction to prosecute the officer in the case.

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Pandiyan is the 12th accused to have been discharged in the case, which was clubbed with the fake encounter of Tulsi Prajapati. While discharging Pandiyan from the case, the special CBI Judge M B Gosavi observed, “The prosecution against accused No. 2 Dr R S Pandiyan stands dropped for want of sanction to prosecute him.”

Pandiyan was arrested on April 24, 2007 for his role in the encounter with then Dy. Inspector General of Police, ATS, Gujarat D G Vanzara. According to CBI, Pandiyan who was then posted as Superintendent of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Gujarat was part of the entire conspiracy and also played active role in kidnapping and killing gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh in the fake encounter.

The CBI had alleged that as a part of the conspiracy, a team of ATS, Gujarat had left for Hyderabad on November 20, 2005 in a car arranged by Pandiyan, while the officer reached there the next morning. The agency alleged that, “On November 21, 2005, Pandiyan met the senior officials of Police Commissionerate of Hyderabad and also visited the blast site to give his visit an official colour.”

It was on November 22, 2005 that Sohrabuddin and his wife, along with Sohrabuddin’s close confident Tulsi Prajapati, took a bus from Hyderabad for Sangli. The agency claimed that Pandiyan with some of the police officials in three cars followed Sohrabuddin’s bus till they stopped it on the way. Later, on Pandiyan’s order, the officers asked Sohrabuddin, his wife and Prajapati to get down from the bus and get in the car.

The CBI alleged that abduction of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausarbi and Prajapati was supervised and executed on the instruction of Pandiyan. The agency had also alleged that after killing Sohrabuddin, the team had killed his wife Kausarbi and burnt her body. The agency alleged that Pandiyan had actively participated in the conspiracy to dispose Kausarbi’s body and also arranged for hay used to burn her body.