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Katara, fake encounter case may cost Modi dear

Saturday, 28 April 2007

Most of the encounters were fake, says former Minister
BJP worried about a likely CBI probe into Shorabuddin case

Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may find it difficult to overcome the two consecutive blows within a span of one week the arrest of the party MP Babubhai Katara on human trafficking charge, and the arrest of three senior IPS officers, two from Gujarat cadre and one from Rajasthan, in the Shorabuddin fake encounter case.

The two incidents have brought a new lease of life to the hitherto defensive Congress as well as the dissidents within the ruling BJP. Led by former Minister and party spokesman Nalin Bhatt, who has been suspended from the party last year following his anti-Modi tirade, two dissident MLAs on Thursday demanded dismissal of the Modi Government and imposition of President's Rule in the State.

Both Siddhartha Parmar and Ramilaben Desai, who had been openly criticising the Modi administration, supported the Congress demand for CBI inquiry into the Shorabuddin fake encounter claiming that the "invisible hands" of the Chief Minister and of his Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, would become clear if an impartial inquiry was held into the episode.

Mr. Bhatt also demanded that all the 10-odd "encounters" carried out by the arrested former chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, Deputy Inspector General of Police D.G. Vanjhara be brought under the CBI scanner. He claimed that most of the "encounters" in the name of "threats" to the lives of Mr. Modi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L. K. Advani, were fake and carried out at the instance of Mr. Modi.

`Contract killers'

Describing Mr. Modi and his close associates in the party as a "gang of contract killers," Mr. Bhatt said the Chief Minister had taken "supari" (contract) for eliminating Shorabuddin who was becoming a threat to the businessmen in parts of Rajasthan where he was extorting "protection money." Mr. Vanjhara only executed the order issued by Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah, he said. The other senior dissident leaders, who so far are lying low in the face of Mr Advani's all-out support to Mr. Modi, are likely to wait for an opportune moment to strike back at the Chief Minister.

Even as a team of Gujarat police left for Delhi to present in the Supreme Court on Friday the action taken report on the Shorabuddin fake encounter case, the police and the bureaucratic circles here maintained a stoic silence over the alleged role of Mr. Shah, a close confidant of Mr. Modi, in the incident. Besides the Congress leaders, Mr. Bhatt also demanded immediate dismissal of Mr. Shah from the ministry and wondered why the Chief Minister was "protecting" him.

The BJP leadership in the State is worried about the possibility of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre ordering a CBI inquiry into the Shorabuddin case and other alleged "encounters" carried out by Mr. Vanjhara and his team.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/27/stories/2007042720181200.htm

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