IPS officer from Rajasthan Dinesh Kumar MN, arrested in the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, has received the support of the Rajasthan govt.
GANDHINAGAR: The difference could not have been starker. While the Rajasthan government and the police on Wednesday came out in support of their IPS officer Dinesh Kumar, arrested on Tuesday for fake encounter of Sohrabuddin, the Gujarat government is distancing itself from the arrest of its IPS officers.
A team led by Rajasthan home minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan DGP AS Gill, home secretary VS Singh and Udaipur IG Rajeev Dasot, demanded an explanation on Wednesday from their counterparts in Gujarat. There were reports of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s effigy being burnt in Rajasthan to protest against Kumar’s arrest.
Dinesh Kumar, SP of Alwar district, was arrested along with IPS officers from Gujarat — IG (border range) DG Vanzara and SP (state intelligence wing) RK Pandian — on the charge of murder for their alleged role in the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter in Ahmedabad in 2005.
While most Gujarat IPS officers showed no sympathy towards the arrest of their colleagues, Rajasthan cops said they would get more officers from their state to protest against the arrest of their senior.
Although Kataria said they were just on a ‘fact-finding mission’, he hinted that his government was not pleased with the way their officer was picked up without any warning.
The minister said Kumar was an upright officer with a clean track record. Despite being charged with a serious offence, Kataria defended Kumar saying he was only a co-accused in the case and should not have been arrested before the main accused. “Our officer was not on the site on the day of the encounter,” he added.
However, preferring to stay out of any legal tangle, Kataria said his government will not protect Kumar and will allow the court to decide whether he was guilty or not.
Gujarat IPS officers, however, didn’t seem to be too upset about the arrest of their two colleagues. “Ninety percent of Gujarat IPS officers want them to be punished. The department does resort to third degree punishments and occasionally encounters for a good purpose. But if encounters are carried out for personal gains or to appease politicians, then such officers should be exposed,” said an IPS officer.
He said there was truth in the theory that Sohrabuddin was knocked out at the behest of influential Rajasthan traders, who were target of his extortion racket.
“Sohrabuddin did not have a criminal record in Gujarat. The case pertaining the recovery of a cache of arms from his house in Ujjain is more than 10 years old. How come the case was not opened before and he was eliminated suddenly in 2005?” he asked.
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