Sohrabuddin encounter: Action sought against Andhra cops

With the arrest of Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter, the heat is on for some officials in the Hyderabad police department.

In a letter written to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee has claimed that many officers in the Hyderabad police department had provided logistical support for the encounter.

The letter says that the Hyderabad police had even halted traffic on the Hyderabad-Mumbai highway to ensure that the operation to nab Sohrabuddin was conducted smoothly.

The letter, which quotes the statements of the witnesses and the accused, states that in November 2005, Gujarat IPS officer Raj Kumar Pandian had visited Hyderabad to conduct a series of meetings with counter-intelligence, special task force and city police officials.

The AP police allegedly arranged for cars for the Gujarat police team to follow Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi, who were traveling in a bus to Mumbai from Hyderabad. Minutes before the operation, traffic was stopped along the highway for a couple of hours so that the bus could be intercepted at a lonely location.

The police team reportedly took Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi to a farmhouse in Gujarat, where they were killed and their bodies were disposed of. The Gujarat police later claimed that Sohrabuddin was a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative who was killed in an encounter.

Pandian, during interrogations, stated that seven officials of the AP police were present at the time of the operation. They had even visited the Anti-Terrorism Squad office in Gujarat in connection with the case.

The CLMC argues that action should be initiated against the Hyderabad police officers as it is clear now that the entire operation was fake.