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The Gujarat snooping controversy on Tuesday reached the Supreme Court, with suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma urging it to take cognisance of the audio tapes aired by news portals, saying it contains proof of how the state government had tried to frame him in "frivolous" cases.
The appointment came just days before his retirement on July 31.
The Gujarat high court on Monday stayed its own order rejecting suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt's plea to set aside criminal procedure initiated against him in connection with a custodial death case in 1990.
The five-member team headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan spent almost an entire morning visiting the sites, sources in the police department said. The team, which include former director general of police of Uttar Pradesh C D Sathpathy and three IPS officers from Gujarat -- Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia -- had an extensive meeting at Meghaninagar police station after visiting the contentious sites, police sources said.
The Gujarat police has accepted as fake the encounter in which Tulsi Prajapati, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh murder case, was killed, top state CID officials have said.
In a surprise move, Gujarat government on Wednesday reinstated suspended IPS officer G L Singhal, an accused in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case whose recording of phone conversations had brought to light the snooping scandal allegedly involving Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah.
This is the second time that Geeta Johri visited Andhra Pradesh for this case.
Additional sessions judge DD Thakkar took the SIT's reply on record and posted the hearing on the bail application on Monday.
Investigations into the mysterious disappearance of Kausar Bi, the wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter in Ahmedabad in 2005 after being dubbed a terrorist by police, could throw up some grisly facts.
She had been lodged in the Sabarmati Central jail in Ahmedabad since her arrest on June 26.
The CID has so far arrested six policemen in the fake encounter case, including the three IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh M N. The three IPS officials were arrested on April 24.
A court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday deferred till Thursday its order on the bail pleas of activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP RB Sreekumar in a case of fabricating evidence to frame innocent persons in connection with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.
Vanzara has a heart ailment and has been treated for the same several times in the recent past, said advocate Mitesh Amin when the plea for conducting narco-analysis tests on Vanzara and five others arrested in the case came up for hearing.
Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has petitioned President Pratibha Patil to appoint a new Commission of Inquiry to probe the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in 2002 riots.
The court on Wednesday said that no witnesses accused Pandey of murdering and kidnapping of the victims.
In a fresh letter to the Nanavati Commission that is probing the 2002 Gujarat riots, suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Wednesday again demanded that he be given access to certain records of post-riots period, in order to enable him file a comprehensive affidavit before the panel.
He did not name the officer but it was Gujarat Indian Police Service officer Satish Verma who probed the case.
The action came after Amit Shah accused Teesta of giving baseless information to the police about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Members from Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), Congress, RJD and BSP termed as serious the killing of one Sohrabuddin allegedly in a fake encounter in the state.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia, which was to take up the plea for hearing at 3.45 pm, adjourned the matter to September 1 due to paucity of time.
Jailed Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara on Friday told a special CBI court that he executed the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter on orders given by his superior on the basis of inputs received from the Intelligence Bureau.
Johri is the one who has been accused in the Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. However, the special Central Bureau of Investigation court discharged her from the case in March 2015, as the prosecution failed to obtain sanction for her prosecution from the state government.
With police remand of the three IPS officers arrested in the case ending on Saturday, the CID would try to ferret out as much information as possible from the accused.
The EC has already given its reply to the letter and said the transfers ahead of the December Assembly polls in the state were ordered under Article 324 of the Constitution, official sources said.
'The SIT did not follow up with the CD of the phone call recordings that could have helped it find who were leading the mobs and where the calls of people involved in the rioting originated from and terminated.'
In what could mean a clean chit to former Gujarat Director General of Police P C Pande, the Supreme Court appointed special investigation team has told a special court in Ahmedabad that there was no evidence of dereliction of duty by the IPS officer during the 2002 riots.
Terming the anniversary of the Godhra train carnage, that left 59 karsevaks dead and triggered one of worst communal riots in India, as the "10th year of shame", suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt on Monday criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that democracy was being killed in the state.
Missing the deadline for filing Income Tax returns can lead to consequences.
Dr S Nambi Narayanan, the retired Indian Space Research Organisation scientist whose bio-pic the film is, has tested positive for COVID-19.
The SIT had found several lapses in repairs, maintenance and operation of the bridge.
A Special Court on Saturday remanded senior Gujarat IPS officer P P Pandey, a key accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, in CBI custody till August 21.
The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Delhi high court to decide within two weeks the plea pending before it challenging the appointment of senior IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi police commissioner.
Garima Lohia, Uma Harathi N and Smriti Mishra secured the second, third and fourth ranks respectively in the examination, results of which were declared on Tuesday.
The Mumbai-based activist, currently in jail in Gujarat, has sought bail.
The resolution expressed "disapproval" against the controversial Gujarat-cadre officer being "forced upon Delhi" as its police commissioner.
Eleven Gujarat policemen, including mid-level officers, who were named as accused in the FIR filed by CBI in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case but not chargesheeted, have been made witnesses by the probe agency.
After her detention on Saturday, she had been taken to the Santacruz police station in Mumbai for informing the local police about her detention.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, told a bench headed by Justice UU Lalit that a response to Setalvad's petition is ready but it requires some corrections.
His father Prakash Singh, who is known for introducing several police reforms and has been awarded Padma Shri as well, had served as the BSF DG from 1993-94.
All the Gujarat cadre officers have one thing in common. They do not need Modi's 'informal interactions' and advice because they are from the so-called 'Modi school of governance.' They know Modi well enough to perform their assigned roles.
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