CBI seeks permission to arrest officers loyal to Amit Shah

After arresting and grilling former junior home minister Amit Shah for the second consecutive day, CBI is now on the prowl for his loyal officers.

The investigating agency has already sought permission from its head office to arrest Geetha Johri, OP Mathur and GC Raigar if they fail to co-operate in the investigation.

CBI has already summoned and probed Raigar. However, it is yet to probe Mathur and has issued summons to probe Johri. CBI has already questioned Johri twice, after it began investigation into the case following a Supreme Court order in January. Johri has been asked to appear before CBI on or before August 10. She is presently in the UK. “Mathur has been summoned, but he has not yet appeared before the agency,” a source said.

The CBI team probing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and the killing of Kausar Bi had submitted a report to the agency’s central director in July, seeking permission to interrogate and arrest the IPS officers. CBI is yet to receive orders to arrest PC Pandey.

When investigating officer VL Solanki was close to cracking the case, Shah had asked Raigar to stop investigation. Johri was at that time supervising the case and Raigar was ADGP of CID (crime).

The investigation was later transferred to Rajnish Rai, then DIG of CID (crime). By then, Mathur had replaced Raigar. Sources said Mathur too tried to influence the investigation. CBI, however, is keen to know the  details about political intervention.