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Charge sheet filed against Vanzara, others

Manas Dasgupta

Police claim substantial evidence

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat CID (Crime) police on Monday filed a 713-page charge sheet in a city court against 13 police officials accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

They were the suspended Inspector-General D.G. Vanzara, IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, the IPS officer from Rajasthan M.N. Dinesh, two superintendents and two deputy superintendents of the Gujarat police and three police personnel each of the Gujarat and Rajasthan cadres.The accused were not present when Raju Bhargava, assisting chief investigating officer Geetha Johri, handed over the sealed cover to chief metropolitan magistrate K.J. Upadhyaya.

While the police declined to reveal details, an official spokesman said the police had “sufficient material evidence” to substantiate the charges against the accused. The charge sheet included recorded evidence of 190 witnesses investigated by the CID (Crime).

The CID (Crime) officials presented documentary and material evidence including bottles of soil samples said to contain the remains of Sohrabuddin’s wife, Kausarbi.

She was murdered allegedly by the accused in a bungalow on the outskirts of Gandhinagar and later the body was burnt at Illol in Sabarkantha district, native village of the principal accused Mr. Vanzara.

Also presented in the court was the registration number of a private luxury bus, in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra, when they were allegedly abducted by a joint team of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Rajasthan Special Task Force.

A train ticket for travel from Surat to Ahmedabad used by constable Ajay Parmar, personal secretary to Mr. Pandian, formed part of the documentary evidence. Seven bullets recovered from the body of Sohrabuddin were part of material evidence.

At the next hearing on July 23, the court will inform the accused of the charges filed to give them an opportunity to reply, say court sources.

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