GANDHINAGAR: Three more police personnel, including constable Ajay Parmar, the former personal attaché of the arrested IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, were arrested on Monday by the Gujarat CID (Crime) police investigating the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

The two others are Santram Sharma, in the constable rank and driver of the vehicle in which the police travelled from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad and brought Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi back, and inspector N.H. Dabhi, who allegedly fired three shots at Sohrabuddin during the encounter at Vishala circle on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Dabhi, who was earlier alleged to be absconding, was also believed to be part of the police team that picked up Sohrabuddin from the Hyderabad-Sangli highway.

The arrest of Parmar has raised eyebrows in police circles because the entire case was supposed to be based on his "confessional statement" given on January 17 , to the chief investigating officer Geetha Johri.

Parmar, who was also part of the Anti-Terrorist Squad headed by the arrested Deputy Inspector-General D.G. Vanzara, gave graphic details to the police of how the team went from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad, stayed at the CISF mess there, how the bus in which Sohrabuddin and others were travelling was chased by the Gujarat police and how Sohrabuddin and his wife were abducted and brought to Ahmedabad.

He also told the police about the farmhouse at Koba, near Gandhinagar, where the couple were kept for two days and how Sohrabuddin was later shot in a fake encounter.

It was from Parmar's statement that the investigating officers came to know about the murder of Kausarbi.

Parmar in his statement also told the police that he was later informed by constable Nathusinh Jadeja, who was also Vanzara's driver, of how Kausarbi was murdered in another farmhouse at Koba, where she was shifted after Sohrabuddin's death, and the body taken and burnt at Illol, Vanzara's native village.

The police are surprised why Parmar, who was expected to turn government approver during the trial and support the case, was arrested. His statement, given to a police officer without the presence of a magistrate as required under section 164, will have no legal validity in court in case he turns hostile.

Sharma is believed to have driven the Qualis, provided to the ATS by its owner, a Porbandar-based private company dealing in the export of fishes, which took the ATS team to Hyderabad and returned with Sohrabuddin and Kausarbi.

Meanwhile, the digging operations have been completed at Illol village, where the CID (crime) team led by Geetha Johri, descended on Sunday, to find clues about Kausarbi's murder.

Some more samples were claimed to have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory here, but the outcome of the tests were still not known.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail