CID quizzes Vandana Sarkar

Author: Vitusha Oberoi/Prawesh Lama Date: 25 Mar 2008

West Bengal police grills Vandana Sarkar regarding death of Nithari witness Jatin but leaves CBI director as of now



CID Team in Noida
A West Bengal CID team probing the murder/death of Jatin Sarkar, who was a key complainant in the Nithari serial killings, has expressed its inability to probe CBI director Vijay Shanker, who is also named as a suspect in the case.

Two inspectors and two sub-inspectors of the West Bengal Homicide squad grilled Jatin's widow Vandana for the second day while admitting that it would not investigate the involvement of CBI in the case.

"We cannot question CBI director. We will go back to Alipur headquarters and submit a report. Then a team headed by an Additional Director General-level official will probably come to do that (talk to CBI)," a team member told Vandana and her associates.

Jatin Sarkar was the father of Pinky Sarkar one of the children killed in Nithari and one of the key complainants in the case.

Interrogating Vandana for over two hours, the CID team sought extensive details about Jatin, relating to his personal habits of drinking to even his financial dealings.

No foul play?

CBI Director
Vijay Shanker
The team headed by Inspector A S Pahari questioned Vandana trying to get something to prove their theory that Jatin had died due to excessive drinking and there was no foul play involved.

Vandana told the CID team that Jatin's face was smeared with mud when she and her son, Sonu, saw the body on September 1, 2007 nearly a week before Jatin was to testify against CBI director Shanker and two other officers, who had earlier threatened him.

Murdered

Suspecting direct foul play by the CBI, Vandana said Jatin had only been murdered as he was a fisherman and could not drown in knee-deep water, a theory which

the police initially floated allegedly to protect the CBI top boss.

"He was a fisherman. He could catch fish with his hand. He was a good swimmer. How could he drown in knee-deep water," she reportedly told the CID team.

Not drunk

"The CID is hell bent on proving that my husband was drunk. It was 11 am when he was killed. He used to take money from me. He did not drink but you want to believe something else," she told the team during the interrogation in the presence of her lawyer Khalid Khan.

Interestingly, a team member Sandeep Ganguly fumbled when Khan wanted the team to show the post-mortem report. "We have seen the autopsy report. We are not carrying it with us. In the forensic lab report it is clear that he was drowned," Ganguly admitted during interrogation, a record of which is available with MiD DAY.

Apart from Inspector Pahari, S K Haldar, Sandeep Ganguly and Anirudh Chatterjee are other members of the CID team.