Wednesday 11 August 2010

Sohrabuddin Encouter: Innocent Kausar's killing haunts Gujarat police

More than Sohrabuddin Sheikh, it is the murder of innocent Kausar Bi that is haunting Gujarat police. After the arrest of Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, new revelations expose that how senior officials colluded to not just run extortion rackets but build empires.

Intoxicated by power, they used criminals to further their agenda. In India, it seems that perhaps anyone who is poor and has no connections can be killed and the encounter passed off as genuine, because ordinary middle-class or poor can't fight the system. After all, affording lawyers' fee for higher courts is not easy.

But Sohrabuddin Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin defied this perception. He decided to fight case and approached Supreme Court. In India where 95% encounters are false, the Apex Court ordered a fresh investigation.

It came out that cops were functioning as dons with the backing of their political masters. Sohrabuddin may be a criminal but his wife, Kausar Bi, was killed in such a manner that it can put to shame the most ferocious of criminals.

The cop-criminal nexus worked along with traders. When marble traders of Rajasthan gave 'supari', Gujarat police obliged. DG Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh MN were some of the names in this story.

Sohrabuddin and his wife were abducted during the bus journey, kept in a farmhouse. First, Sohrabuddin was murdered in cold blood and it was termed an encounter. Later Kausar allegedly raped and burnt. Her remains were disposed off.

In Indian society, casteist and communal politics has divided citizens and civil society hardly raises voice. Police remain an instrument of powerful. This happened in Sohrabuddin case. Amit Shah and the cops involved in the murders may not have realised then that law will ultimately catch them.

Amit Shah was Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's close confidante. Shah may have thought that he would never get caught. He is suspect in the Rs 16n00 crore fraud. Ketan Parekh was saved after he paid a bribe.

About 42 cooperative banks lost huge money and many were closed. How many ordinary families lost their hard-earned money! Such nexus of crime and corruption causes devastation. A few years later, law has caught him with all of them. Let's see.

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