Cong hopes suitable action against Guj govt in fake shootout case

New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) The Congress today expressed the hope that the Supreme Court will take action commensurate with the Gujarat government's guilt in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

Welcoming the apex court order asking the state government to file its final investigation report within two weeks, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Court had simply ''deferred'' its decision on the matter till May 15.

He told mediapersons here that yesterday Gujrat Government tried to prevent the media from collecting information ''but no amount of obstruction can cover up the dark deeds of the Gujarat administration.'' Mr Singhvi said, ''It was only to control and guide the investigations into the matter that Gujarat Director General of Police, against whom the court had earlier passed strictures in the Godhra massacre case, had issued a circular designating an officer, Mr Mathur, to supervise the matter.'' Alleging that Gujarat had sunk deep into lawlessness under the Narendra Modi dispensation, Mr Singhvi said the fake encounters and the bid to cover up the same could not have taken place without the connivance of the state government.

''It was not possible without the connivance of the government machinery to rape a woman (Kausar Bi) in a BJP leader's farmhouse, then liquidate her and burn her and to kill the only Prajapati, the only eye witness in the case,'' Mr Singhvi said.

He pointed out that it was only the Supreme Court which had given direction that lady police officer Johari's investigation be allowed to be carried on, ''but the state government obstructed it''.

''It is a minimum CBI inquiry into the case that is needed, though much more is required,'' he said.

UNI