NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday demanded a thorough probe into the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was killed in an encounter in Gujarat in 2005 after being billed as a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.

While the Congress said it was the duty of the courts to ensure that an independent agency investigate all such cases of false encounters, the CPI (M) demanded a CBI probe into murder.

The CPI (M) Polit Bureau also demanded a CBI probe into all such encounter killings since 2002. Reacting to the arrest of three senior Gujarat police officials for the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, the Polit Bureau said: "It reveals the lawlessness of the authorities and the shocking state of affairs under the [Narendra] Modi Government."

Dozen encounters

It was only the "tip of the iceberg," the CPI (M) statement said and drew attention to reports of a dozen such encounters in Gujarat since 2002. "The Gujarat Government's shameful communal stance provides the cover for delinquent police officers to kill innocent people with no fear of questions being asked as long as they are termed terrorists and as long as they belong to the minority community."

At a press conference, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal raised seven questions on Sheikh's murder.

These include whether the guilty police officials benefited monetarily from stage-managing the encounters, the whereabouts of Sheikh's wife, and the identity of those responsible for the fake encounter.

"The nation must be secure from the threat of terrorists. It must also be secure from acts of terror perpetuated by some representatives of a brutalised police force under a dispensation which has no respect for the rule of law," Mr. Sibal said.

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