Ahmedabad, May 4
A reconstruction by police of the fake encounter in which Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed produced results that did not match arrested IPS officer D G Vanzara’s statements about the incident.

CID officials probing the killing recently re-enacted the encounter at Vishala circle on the outskirts of this city where Vanzara had claimed that Sheikh had opened fire on a police party when he was stopped while riding a motorcycle in November, 2005.

“Vanzara’s statements about the exchange of fire between police and Sohrabuddin did not match the findings of the dummy run conducted by CID officials,” a police source told PTI here tonight.

The encounter was recreated about three weeks ago to test the claims of DIG (border range) Vanzara and the two other IPS officers arrested in connection with the case. Shots were fired at a dummy to ascertain the impact on it from the distance given by the arrested officials, the source said.

CID officials tested the range of bullets by firing at the dummy from different distances and evaluated the kind of impression the bullets left on impact.

“The CID has gathered strong forensic evidence about the range of bullets fired at Sohrabuddin,” the source said.

The source said CID officials found ample evidence to prove that Vanzara was the main conspirator in the case and he was immediately arrested. — PTI

Ahmedabad, May 4
The fake encounter case that has put the Gujarat government on the backfoot has apparently affected the relationship between Chief Minister Narendra Modi and minister of state for home Amit Shah.

Shah, once regarded as Modi’s blue-eyed boy, seems to have fallen out of the latter’s favour with the result that he is conspicuous by his absence in cabinet meetings and public functions, political sources here said.

Modi is distancing himself from Shah after fingers were pointed at the minister for allegedly trying to impede the probe into the fake encounter involving Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a matter that is causing political embarrassment in an election year, the sources said.

The official reason given by Shah is that he is unable to attend cabinet meetings because of ill-health.

Shah was the only minister not present at the state foundation day celebrations in Junagadh on May 1. Sources said Shah was asked not to attend a cabinet meeting yesterday that examined the implications of the Supreme Court order directing the state to submit a final status report on the fake encounter in two weeks.

Sources in the state secretariat said Shah had hardly come to office after the arrest of three IPS officers for alleged involvement in the killing of Sheikh, who was described as a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist and gunned down in November 2005.

Meanwhile, Geetha Johri, the senior cop who headed the team that conducted a preliminary inquiry into the fake encounter, today took charge as the Supervisory Officer of the CID (Crime) probing the 2005 incident.

With the police remand of the three IPS officers arrested in the case ending tomorrow, the CID would try to ferret out as much information as possible from the accused. — PTI