CBI’s IO defends recorded statements

In the Sohrabuddin Encounter Case on Wednesday, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court has started examining the 34 Investigating Officers. On the second day of his deposition, A D More, the Investigating Officer of CBI said he had recorded statements of eight witnesses of which four had turned hostile, which included Apte family members, who had travelled in the luxury bus from which allegedly Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife Kauser Bi were abducted. More, who had recorded statements of the Apte family, M N Rathore, Laxmi Narayanan, Chandresh Patel and Dr.Prakash Bandivdekar, defended his claim, he had recorded only that which the witnesses had narrated and kept blaming his Chief Investigating Officer, Amitabh Thakur. The special CBI Judge, S J Sharma told him, “You are an Investigating officer you cannot blame your chief.”

In the cross-examination of More, which was conducted by Advocate Hitesh Shah and Advocate Wahab Khan, both tried to shed light in those areas where More had not investigated. While questioning him Shah told him, “You recorded the statements of Apte family under Section 164 Cr.Pc by falsifying that they had to notarise some documents.” More claimed he had noted verbatim as was told to him. “It is not true, I recorded only that which the witness had narrated.” When Advocate Wahab Khan started cross-examining him he alleged More had created a bogus story and had met with witness Dr Prakash Bandivdekar to convince him to give statements under Section 164 Cr.Pc. Khan also questioned him about Bandivdekar being convicted in a murder case and his connection with criminals belonging to gangs.