This Article is From Apr 29, 2013

Caught on camera: VIP treatment for senior Gujarat cop arrested in Sohrabuddin case

Ahmedabad: When Rajkumar Pandian, suspended police officer, arrived in Ahmedabad, a local news channel began filming his visit.

The footage showed that Mr Pandian, who has spent the last six months in a jail in Mumbai, and was in town for a court hearing, was allowed to use a private car to leave the railway station and head to his family's home.

The footage reveals what many in Gujarat have alleged - that a select group of senior police officers, arrested for shooting civilians on the pretext that they were a security threat, are treated not as criminals but as VIPs by some government departments.

The Gujarat and Mumbai police forces, when asked by NDTV, have traded charges, accusing each other of being responsible for escorting Mr Pandian during his visit to Gujarat.

Mr Pandian is among a ring of former police officers who are accused of fake encounters. In 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a small-time criminal, was killed by the Gujarat Police. A year later, the sole witness to his murder, Tulsiram Prajapati, was also shot dead by the cops.

Mr Pandian and other senior cops accused of the killings were moved to a jail in Mumbai earlier this year after the Supreme Court ordered the trial of those cases to be moved out of Gujarat to ensure they were free and fair.

The controversy over the special treatment for Mr Pandian comes as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused the state government of shielding another police officer, PP Pande, who is accused of a role in a third fake encounter - the killing of Mumbai student Ishrat Jehan and three others in 2004. The CBI had said in a local court in Ahmedabad a few days ago that Mr Pande has been avoiding interrogation, and that the state government, which says it doesn't know where it is, is providing him cover.
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