NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD, 1 May 2007 — The Gujarat state government yesterday confirmed to the Supreme Court that Ahmedabad’s fake shootout victim Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s wife Kausar Bi had been killed by state police within days of her husband’s murder in November 2005.
Counsel K.T.S. Tulsi told Justice Tarun Chatterjee that he had already submitted the state government’s investigation report into the killing of the Muslim couple in a sealed cover to the top court’s registry.
The police committed both killings. Three senior police officers — Inspector General D.G. Vanzara and Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Pandyan of Gujarat and Alwar Superintendent of Police M.N. Dinesh of Rajasthan — have been arrested for the killing of Sohrabuddin and the disappearance of Kausar Bi.
“Investigations have revealed that she was burned to death in Banjara village near Ahmedabad,” Tulsi added. The admission came after the court stated that it would pass its order today on a habeas corpus petition filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin Sheikh seeking a direction to the Gujarat government to produce Kausar Bi, who went missing since her husband’s killing on Nov. 26, 2005.
Tulsi said the arrested officers Vanzara, Pandyan and Dinesh, who were taken into custody this month, had admitted to the twin murders during their interrogation.
Disclosing some of the contents of the report submitted to the court, Tulsi told reporters that Kausar Bi had been killed and her body disposed of in Banjara village near Ahmedabad. Sohrabuddin was traveling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra with his wife Kausar Bi when they were picked up along with an unidentified man from a bus.
Soon after the abduction, Vanzara had announced Sohrabuddin’s killing in a police “shootout,” dubbing him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist who had entered the state allegedly from Hyderabad to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
His wife Kausar Bi was missing since then. The Congress and the Left parties intensified their demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the shameful incident.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which along with three other Left parties extends crucial support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, even criticized Home Minister Shivraj Patil for remaining silent over the police killings.
“It should be probed at the highest level and the guilty officers should be punished. Not only the officers who are guilty but the complacency of the state government should also be probed,” said CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
The Left and the Congress have demanded a CBI inquiry into the staged police killings in the state since 2002 — the year the state witnessed one of the worst communal violence in the country.
Justice Chatterjee said the court would also examine the central government’s plea for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the staged shootout.
The CPM also demanded the resignation of Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, who is alleged to have connived with police officials to kill Sohrabuddin.
“The killing was a perfect example of the state government’s aggressiveness, bitterness created by religious divide in the state and high-handedness of police,” said CPM MP Mohammed Salim.
