Sohrabuddin case: CBI to quiz Narendra Modi?

AHMEDABAD - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team is likely to seek permission from its headquarters to question Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

According to television reports, the investigating agency may want Modi to answer some questions in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

The CBI wants to know if Modi was aware of the attempts being made by top police officials to scuttle the probe.

If Modi is summoned for questioning, it will be for the second time this year. He was earlier questioned by a Special Investigation Team in a Gujarat riots case.

Earlier, the CBI has summoned former Gujarat DGP P C Pandey for questioning in connection with the case. CBI has called Pandey to appear before it on August 11.

Pandey was DGP when the state CID was investigating the fake encounter case.

This is for the first time Pandey has been called for questioning by the CBI. It had earlier called other IPS officers, including G C Raigar and O P Mathur.

On Wednesday, a three member CBI team posed 32 questions before former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah. He was grilled inside the Sabarmati jail premises.

According to sources, Amit Shah kept saying, “I don’t know and I have never been to these places.”

The Supreme Court handed over the fake encounter case to CBI in January this year.

The investigating agency has so far arrested Amit Shah, IPS officer Abhay Chudasama and owners of Arham farm Rajendra Jirawala in the case.

Shah was arrested on Sunday and sent to judicial custody till August 7.

The CBI has filed a 30,000-page charge sheet against Shah, accusing him of complicity in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005. (ANI)