NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court order directing the Gujarat Government to file a status report on the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi.

The Narendra Modi regime had reduced the State to a "lawless government."

The Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to divert the issue by pointing to the criminal antecedents of Sheikh and the role of the Andhra Pradesh police, the Congress alleged.

Seeks CBI probe

While there was no evidence to suggest that the State machinery in Andhra Pradesh was involved, the Congress was for a probe by the CBI as it would ascertain if individual police officers were involved, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Criticising the ban on the media to the police headquarters in Gandhinagar, he said no act of blocking could cover up the "dark deeds" of the State Government, which was trying to "guide, control and monitor" the probe by placing the police officer concerned under the control of another.

"Gujarat and Gujaratis are proud people, but the Modi Government has reduced it to a lawless government," he said.

Lawlessness by the government, for the government and of the government could not take place without the full support of the regime.

"Is it possible to rape a woman in a house of a sitting corporator, liquidate her and burn her body with wood brought in trucks and cranes without the awareness of the Government? Is it possible to kill any witness like Prajapati? The Gujarat Government today is crying hoarse but nothing was done for months till the Supreme Court gave directions," he said.

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