CPI-M wants CBI probe into encounters in Gujarat since 2002

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) The Polit Bureau, the highest policy-making body of the CPI(M), has demanded a CBI investigation into the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his missing wife and also a probe into all the encounters since 2002 in Gujarat following the arrest of three senior Gujarat IPS officers in a fake encounter case.

The party in a press statement here today has described this as a ''shocking state of affairs under the Modi Government.'' There have been reports of a dozen such "encounters" by the Gujarat police since 2002, the party claimed.

''The Gujarat Government's shameful stance provides the cover for delinquent police officers to kill innocent people with no fear of being asked as long as they are termed terrorists and as long as they belong to the minority community.'' The conduct of the Gujarat Government in the case including taking the case away from the CID officer after she filed the damning interim report makes it clear that the Government cannot be entrusted with the case. This is all the more so since the BJP Home Minister of Rajasthan has defended one of the accused police personnel who is from Rajasthan. Moreover, the wife of the deceased is still missing and feared murdered, the release added.

UNI