Gujarat’s first woman IPS officer first hit headlines with arrest of gunrunner Sharif and then for booking 13 policemen in Sohrabuddin case
After getting its first woman Chief Minister, Gujarat is now all set to get its first woman Director General of Police (DGP) with the state’s first woman IPS officer Geetha Johri taking over as the state’s top cop.Her elevation comes at the backdrop of state DGP PCThakur being transferred to the Centre as the Director General of Civil Defence and Home Guards on deputation.The Centre is learnt to have requested the state government to release him immediately to enable him to take up his new assignment.

Johri first shot to fame with her arrest of Ahmedabad underworld gunman Sharif Khan in early 1992. Later, it was the detailed investigation of this 1982 batch IPS of Gujarat cadre that had resulted in the arrest of 13 policemen, including DG Vanzara, in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The case was initially given to Geetha Johri, who during the first phase dug up the gray areas implicating Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh of the Rajasthan Police.Howver, she was removed from the case and it was handed over to 1992 batch IPS Rajnish Rai, who arrested the trio within a week of his taking over the case.

While he was making a bid to conduct a narco-analysis on them, he was shunted out of the investigation and posted to State Crime Records Bureau and the investigation was once again handed over to Geetha Johri. However, the chargesheet filed by her came under severe criticism from the apex court and the case was handed over to the CBI.

While Johri had come under CBI’s scanner, the probe agency had dropped charges against her last year as it had failed to obtain the mandatory sanction from the Gujarat government for prosecu tion of an IPS officer.

Johri was also a member of the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) under former CBI Chief RK Raghavan, which had probed the ten most heinous cases of 2002 riots.

Johri was posted as the Managing Director of the Gujarat State Police Housing Corporation in Gandhinagar and was promoted to the rank of DGP last year after the CBI court had dropped charges against her.

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=Geetha-Johri-From-Taking-on-Fellow-IPS-Vanzara-16042016002015