HYDERABAD: Perhaps impressed by his investigating skills in various high profile cases, the CBI headquarters in New Delhi has now entrusted the probe into the sensational Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case to Andhra Pradesh CBI joint director V V Lakshminarayana.
Sources said that another reason that the top bosses zeroed in on Lakshminarayana is because the case allegedly has a state angle to it.
With the Supreme Court making an observation some time ago, asking the investigative agency to speed up the probe into the AP angle, a CBI team from Gujarat had recently questioned DIG, Intelligence N Balasubrahmanyam and ACP, Shamshabad, Ch Srinivas Rao. On Monday, former DGP K Aravinda Rao deposed before CBI at the local CBI office in Koti.
Balasubrahmanyam is alleged to have provided logistical support to the Raj Kumar Pandian, then SP of Gujarat ATS and booked a room for him in the IPS officer’s mess in Hyderabad.
Sources said that a few more IPS officers from the state are likely to depose before Lakshminarayana, shortly. “As it is a Supreme Court monitored investigation, the CBI will complete the probe at the earliest,” sources said.
With Lakshminarayana’s attention being turned to the Sohrab case, sources say that the other high profile cases he is investigating - the illegal assets case of Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy, Emaar-APIIC properties scam and the Obulapuram mining scam - may take a back seat for some time.