CBI to court: Amin must confess first

The CBI probing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case told a special court on Tuesday that it wants to record the confessional statement of Dr Narendra Amin before his application for turning an approver is taken up for consideration. Amin, a suspended DySP and an accused in the case, had moved an application on July 26, praying that he be allowed to turn approver.

On Tuesday, when Amin’s application came up for hearing in the court of CBI judge AY Dave in Mirzapur, the probe agency submitted that it needs to record Amin’s statement before it decides whether the accused needs to be an approver in the case. At the same time, the agency opposed the application of DG Vanzara and seven others objecting to Amin’s approver plea.

“At present, we are not supporting Amin’s application to become an approver, but we intend to take his confessional statement in the presence of a judicial magistrate under section 164(2) of CrPC,” Ejaz Khan, senior prosecutor for CBI, toldmediapersons.

The agency clarified that they will rely on Amin’s prospective statement after verifying it with the corroborative evidences, other statements and factual aspects of the case. “Our intention is to first take his (Amin’s) statement, verify it with other evidences and then we can make a stand before the court whether he should be allowed to be an approver,” Khan said.

Amin is an accused in the Sohrabuddin case and he wants to help the CBI by becoming an approver. A day after Amin moved his application in the court, other eight accused, including DG Vanzara, Dinesh MN and Rajkumar Pandiyan, moved an application on July 27, raising objection to Amin’s plan.

However, on Tuesday, CBI lawyer Khan moved an application before the designated court, saying that the objection application of the eight accused should be rejected as “it is devoid of merit”.

Counsels for the eight accused, SB Jaysnghani and SB Vakil, told the court that they had not been provided copies of the CBI chargesheet yet and that the CBI can’t record Amin’s statement before the court hears their objections. The court then posted the hearing to August 10.