Investigation trail in the Sadik Jamal fake encounter case could lead the CBI sleuths into the masterminds’ den! The probe, which picked up pace since the last few days is expected to reach senior police officers from Gujarat as well as officials from Intelligence Bureau.
Sources close to the recent development said that Rajendra Kumar, a central intelligence officer who was posted in Gujarat in 2002, may soon be questioned by CBI for his alleged leads to detection of crime branch in 2002.
Sources also said that CBI sleuths have geared up to interrogate Kumar for his leads about Sadik Jamal’s intention to kill chief minister Narendra Modi in August 2002. Incidentally, Kumar’s name is also mentioned in the FIR filed by Sadik’s brother Shabbir Jamal.
Kumar’s name has also been referred in the statement of Anupamsingh Gehlot, the then District Superintendent of Police, Bhavnagar who said that Kumar had informed him about Sadik Jamal. In his statement, Gehlot had said that according to Kumar, Jamal was a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists and may come to Gujarat to kill chief minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.
Gehlot also stated that he was intimated by Kumar twice directly and through the director general of police about Sadik Jamal. Gehlot is currently posted as DIG, state IB.
Sources say that, now, after the charge sheet has been filed, the line of action for the CBI sleuths will lead to the IB officer. Sources also said that CBI doubts a conspiracy between the IB officer, Gujarat police and a few officers from Maharashtra police. After the arrest of the officers from Gujarat, the investigation will lead to IB and eventually end at Mumbai.
“It was Kumar who passed the leads from central IB to state police for almost all the encounters that took place between 2002 and 2007 in the state,” a source said.
