Deposition of Investigating officer turns out to be a dampener

MUMBAI: In the Sohrabuddin encounter case, the deposition of Investigating Officer Vasant Laljibhai Solanki, on Wednesday turned out to be a dampener, as he did not state anything against Amit Shah which he had mentioned in his earlier statements before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Having stepped in the witness box, Solanki described how the encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kauser Bi and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati was staged. During the course of his preliminary inquiry,witness Regional Transport Office (RTO) agent Satish Sharma had told Solanki, Sohrabuddin had come to kill the Chief Minister, after which he was killed in an encounter. After his chief examination, it may be noted Solanki slammed the CBI firstly by refusing the food he was offered by saying CBI has harassed me alot and secondly outside the court he told Public Prosecutor BP Raju, "You are lawyer of the state but when I was forgetting certain things you had to remind me but you did not." In his cross examination, the defence advocates tried to bring on record that Solanki was falsely implicating IPS Geeta Johri and other accused in this case because of internal rivalry in his police department which he denied. Advocate Gunjan Mangla brought on record that cases under corruption is pending against Solanki which he accepted before the court and that he was suspended after the crime was registered. Meanwhile, the CBI will go ahead with the trial without the testimony of the brothers of Sohrabuddin as they are not willing to appear before the court even after several times they have been summoned.