Free hand for Johri, rap for DGP Pande

AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court's decision to have inspector general of police Geetha Johri report directly to it about the progress in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case investigation comes as a rap on the knuckles of Gujarat DGP P C Pande.
For, it nullifies Pande's letter of April 27 directing the investigating officer in the case to keep additional DGP (crime) O P Mathur posted of every step taken in the probe.
Pande issued this letter after DIG Rajnish Rai arrested IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh M N without informing his seniors.
On Thursday, the apex court gave Johri not only time (she has to submit the final report on July 3), but insulated her from any sort of interference.
If she is able to link the killing of Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi to the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter of December 2006 and unravel the larger political conspiracy, the establishment could be diving for cover.
The impression that Johri was going slow on the probe, after all the fireworks during Rai's stint, only suggested that she wasn't getting a free hand. Now the apex court is there to clear obstacles, if any.