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India transfixed by `Dirty Harry' saga

India has been transfixed by the tale of rogue cops who allegedly shot dead a Muslim husband and wife, falsely accusing the man of plotting to slay the chief minister of Gujarat state.

The Indian press has likened the case to Clint Eastwood's 1971 vigilante cop thriller Dirty Harry, with critics decrying the emergence of police officers ready to take the law into their own hands.

Gujarat's anti-terrorist squad gunned down Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005 in the suburbs of the Hindu-nationalist-ruled state's largest city, Ahmedabad, claiming he planned to assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi.

The police had alleged Sohrabuddin belonged to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and wanted to kill the Bharatiya Janta Party leader in revenge for the deaths of Muslims in bloody Hindu-Muslim riots that swept the state in 2002.

One of the accused reportedly told his subordinates the police were doing "their patriotic duty" in killing people like Sohrabuddin.

But a petition by his brother in the Supreme Court of India prompted an admission by the state government in March that the killing was a "fake encounter" -- or a staged gun battle.

The case is also drawing attention because it took place in Gujarat, which has been seeking to clean up its image since it was the scene of the anti-Muslim riots, which claimed at least 2,000 lives, according to rights groups.

Three top policemen -- deputy police inspector general D.G. Vanzara, police superintendent Rajkumar Pandian and police superintendent M.N. Dineshkumar -- have since been arrested on charges of murdering Sohrabuddin after he was seized from a bus by plain-clothed police.

Since then, the Gujarat government has admitted before the Supreme Court that Sohrabuddin's wife, Kauser Bi, was killed shortly afterwards.

She was reportedly killed to silence her as a witness.

Sohrabuddin was no angel -- he was accused of being an extortionist and faced charges of murder and kidnapping in Gujarat and other states, media reports said.

But Indian newspapers say that is not the point.

"The bodies of alleged militants become trophies of success in a war against terrorism," the Hindustan Times said in an editorial on Wednesday. "This warped reasoning can apply to both a criminal like Sohrabuddin Sheikh as well as a law-abiding citizen like you. It won't make a difference."

"It does not take much logic to see that acts of injustice provide fertile ground for extremism to flourish," newspaper columnist Manoj Joshi said.

The case is seen as becoming a major campaign issue in this year's Gujarat state elections where Modi, the supposed target of the man murdered by police, is seeking re-election.
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