Guj Cong holds Modi responsible for fake encounters in State

Ahmedabad, May 12 (UNI) Gujarat Congress today accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of being directly responsible for the fake encounters in the state.

''Encounters have become an easy tool for the Modi government to extort money and 'supari' (contract) killing in Gujarat,'' alleged Gujarat Congress Committee spokesperson Shaktisingh Gohel.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Gohel said, ''The IPS officers - Border Range DIG D G Vanzara, Superintendent of Police of Gujarat Intelligence Bureau Rajkumar Pandian and SP of Alwar in Rajasthan M N Dineshkumar - arrested in the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi are just henchmen. The real culprit behind the spate of fake encounters in the state is Chief Minister Narendra Modi.'' ''Retired Supreme Court Chief Justice and former chief of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Justice Anand had written a letter to Mr Modi on December 2, 2003, in which he had asked Mr Modi to implement six guidelines in the event of an encounter,'' Mr Gohel said.

These guidelines include handing over the investigation to the Crime Branch CID, registering a cognisable offence of culpable homicide, initiating a magisterial inquiry into which victim's family members and relatives should be allowed to participate, taking action against the concerned police officers and not giving them promotions or prizes and issuing a detailed report within six months, he said.

However, Mr Modi has deliberately and completely ignored these guidelines. And as a result, there were 23 encounters between January 2003 and January 2006, of which eight encounters were those of Muslims, he said.

''That terrorists are out to target Modi has been an all-time excuse to carry out encounters in the state. As in the case of Sohrabuddin, he was dubbed as terrorist after being killed. The Modi government brought out CDs describing him as terrorist. However, the fact remains that he was booked under the Arms Act and not under Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA),'' Mr Gohel added.

UNI