It took the police almost nine hours to register a case after Friday's clash between the gangs owing allegiance to two witnesses of Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. If sources are to believed, the reason for the delay was the police indecision regarding what reason to give for the clash, and to tone down the FIR of an incident in which the gangs involved had carried revolvers inside the court campus.

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Noor Mohammad Ghoghari, the Sohrab case witness who retracted the statement he had earlier recorded before the CBI, had to try very hard on Friday to get the police to register his complaint.

Talking to DNA, Ghoghari said the police took several hours to talk to some senior official before accepting his complaint. The police case was registered in the evening though the clash between the two gangs had taken place on the sessions court campus at around 11:30 in the morning.

Besides police inspector of Karanj police station KS Savani, and deputy commissioner of police, zone 2, all other police officers concerned were present at Karanj police station. They were allegedly waiting for the consent of some senior official to decide what reason to mention for the clash in the FIR.

According to the police case registered at the Karanj police station, the complainant, Ghoghari, had stated that he was attacked by a group of around 60 people with revolvers and sticks on the Sessions court premises. The gang was led by Ramzan Gandhi alias Ramzani Don.

Incidentally, Gandhi and Ghoghari are both witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. But Ghohgari had later retracted his statement. He is to appear in the Supreme Court on July 27, 2011, in connection with the Sohra case.

The Karanj police filed the complaint and registered the names of around 50 people as the accused in the case, including Ayub Gandhi, Gafar Sodawala, Liyakat, Ismail and others.