Encounters: CM is open game

As the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter ripples reach all the way to Parliament, the Gujarat establishment is understandably nervous.

As the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter ripples reach all the way to Parliament, the Gujarat establishment is understandably nervous. Ministers are proving hard to track down, while the police top brass has imposed a ban on entry of journalists into their headquarters.

What everyone is talking about, in hushed tones, is the BJP “connection” in the case. Some refer to the fact that all the three states which are involved in some way or the other — Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — are ruled by BJP governments. Sheikh was gunned down in Gujarat despite the fact that most of the cases against him are registered in the other two states, with the main charge against him being that he extorted money from Rajasthan marble traders.

Others talk about suspended DIG D G Vanjhara’s “close” links with the powers that be. Chief Minister Narendra Modi incidentally holds the Home portfolio. For his “accomplishments” in saving the political leadership (read Modi) from terrorists, Vanjhara had been recommended for the President’s Police Medal.

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The opposition parties are also demanding to know whether there is a link between Sheikh’s killing and at least six other encounters involving Vanjhara in which the victims were all branded terrorists out to kill Modi.

The Congress, from Union Minister Shankersinh Vaghela to Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Arjun Modhwadia, are demanding the scalps of Modi and Minister of State for Home Amit Shah. Removal of senior officers who were close to determining the “truth” in their probes against the encounter could not have taken place without the consent of the political leadership, the party says.

There is trouble on the home front too for the Chief Minister. The BJP rebels, who have been struggling to gain a foothold as Modi rose from strength to strength, have smelled an opportunity to strike against him.