Thaindian News

Jaipur, June 3 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday named Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Rajasthan minister Rajendra Singh Rathore in its charge sheet for the 2006 Dara Singh shootout case. Rathore denied the charges, terming them a “political conspiracy”.

“It is a conspiracy by the Congress government in the state,” Rathore, a close aide of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, told reporters at the state BJP headquarters here.

“I am ready for any kind of probe… I am not the one who will shy from any sort of enquiry,” he said, alleging his name has been incorporated on the basis of statements of witnesses who were notorious criminals.

“The Congress had promised a probe of ‘fake’ encounter in its manifesto and now to vindicate its stand, the ruling party want a political encounter for me,” he said adding that he was being framed.

The CBI claimed that Dara Singh, a hard core criminal, was gunned down in a fake gunbattle by a team of Rajasthan Police’s special operations group in October 2006.

The agency has named 16 others for the killing. These include Additional Director General of Police A.K. Jain, Inspector General A. Ponnuchami — both Indian Police Service officers, Additional Superintendent of Police Arsad Ali, police inspectors Nisar Khan and Naresh Sharma, assistant sub-inspector Surendra Singh, sub-inspector Satyanarayan Godara and seven other policemen.

Ajay Kumar Jain, advocate for some policemen, told IANS that Rathore’s name has been mentioned as the conspirator, but the CBI has said that investigations against him are yet to be completed.

“Others have been made accused in the charge sheet,” Jain added.

The CBI has arrested six policemen - Ponnuchami, Nisar Khan, Sharma, Singh and Godara and Sub Inspector Munshi Lal - in the case.

A court had earlier issued warrants against seven other policemen - Rajesh Choudhary, Subash Godara, Zulfikar, Arvind, Badri Prasad, Jagraj and Sardar Singh.

Dara Singh’s widow had filed a case in Jaipur against the policemen, alleging the shootout in which he was killed was staged. The Supreme Court had handed over the investigations in the case to the CBI.