Ahmedabad:
Just a day after a top cop in Gujarat accused the Narendra Modi government of targeting him in connection with the Gujarat riots case, another senior IPS officer has alleged victimisation in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
Rajnish Rai, who has for some months now been on a collision course with the state government, has filed a rejoinder with the Central Administrative Tribunal alleging that he was victimised by his senior officers since he had carried out an unbiased probe in the Sohrabuddin case.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot dead in November 2005 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. His wife, Kauser Bi, was killed a few days later. At the time, Gujarat's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) said that Sohrabuddin was a terrorist who planned to assassinate Modi. In 2007, the Gujarat state government admitted in court that Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi had been wrongly killed. Some of the state's senior-most policemen are in jail, charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, and kidnapping.
(Read: Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?) Mr Rai filed the rejoinder in the ongoing case challenging his downgrading of the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) by his then senior officers P C Pande and O P Mathur.
In his rejoinder, he alleged that Mr Pande and Mr Mathur had directed him not to record investigation details in connection with the encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati.
Mr Rai has also accused Mr Pande of playing an acquiescent role to the criminal conspiracy of the then Minister of State for Home Amit Shah and others who tampered with official records pertaining to the Sohrabuddin case in the office of the Criminal Investigation Department (Crime).
He further alleged that Mr Pande hid the truth from the Supreme court by deleting facts from the draft Action Taken Reports which were uncomfortable to the state government.
Mr Rai is one of the few senior 'whistleblower' police officers who have alleged that they were targeted by the Narendra Modi government.
Sources have told NDTV that the state government could soon file a chargesheet against IPS officer Rahul Sharma, who was served a showcause notice in February this year. The Modi government has charged Mr Sharma with giving call record details related to the 2002 post-Godhra riots to the Nanavati Commission without informing the government.
(Read: Gujarat riots - Narendra Modi govt targets another whistleblower cop?)Earlier this week, the Gujarat government suspended police officer Sanjeev Bhatt. The 1988-batch IPS officer was served a five-page suspension letter by the state Home Department, charging him with unauthorised absence.
Mr Bhatt's suspension order came just three days after he told the Supreme Court that the state government, which is meant to prosecute those accused of the communal riots of 2002, has actually been leaking information for use in their defence.
The Centre dubbed the targeting of cops by the Modi government as a "matter of concern".
"Rules provide for the Central government to take certain action. If the officer invokes the rule, certainly we will do it", Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said.