Indian Police Services officer Geetha Johri, who headed the Gujarat Crime Investigation Department probe into the 2005 fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and killing of his wife Kausar Bi, was on Thursday questioned for over eight hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Johri reached the CBI office at old secretariat campus around 10.30 am. Her interrogation went on till around 6.45 pm.
Sources in the CBI said Johri, currently posted as Rajkot Commissioner, could be called again for examination if needed. The Central agency had summoned her to appear before it on August 10, but Johri had requested for more time as she had returned from a long leave.
The CBI has already quizzed Johri twice after taking over the investigation into the fake encounter case on the Supreme Court's order in January. While transferring the case to CBI, the apex court was critical of Gujarat police's handling of the five-year-old episode in which several policemen, including IPS officers, have been arrested.
The SC had expressed displeasure at failure of Gujarat Police's Special Investigation Team, headed by Johri, to identify the seven Andhra Pradesh police personnel who assisted the local police in the fake encounter of Sheikh, an alleged gangster on November 26, 2005.
The court had said that while one of the investigating officers, V L Solanki, was proceeding in the right direction, Johri had not been carrying out the probe in the right manner.
The SC had also come down heavily on Gujarat Police for failing to conduct impartial probe and attempting to "mislead" the apex court by filing conflicting action taken reports.
Former DGP P C Pande was also summoned by CBI in the same case, but he has not been able to appear before the agency as he was out of station.
After taking over the probe from Gujarat CID, CBI arrested former Gujarat minister Amit Shah, currently lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail here, along with other 15 accused policemen.
