Senior Gujarat IPS officer Geeta Johri's allegation that the CBI was intimidating her to depose against former state home minister Amit Shah in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter rocked both the houses of Parliament. The calculated political move was to spoil the chances of Balwinder Singh, a 1976 IPS officer of Andhra cadre currently
special director of the agency, to be elevated as director in December.

Sardar Balwinder Singh has been in the race for CBI director post. Next to K Vijayarama Rao who occupied this high post, a second chance of AP cadre to hold the prime post was seen as bright. But with Johri's statements, he seems to ahve lost in the political game.

As the Supreme Court is supervising the investigations and postings of the higher echeleons of CBI, Johri played a clever ball, said a senior IPS officer of AP cadre.

The Bhartiya Janata Party racked up the issue to claim the central government's hand behind "nefarious attempts" to involve Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's confidant Shah in the killing, forcing adjournment of both the houses for an hour on Monday. The party, however, did not pursue the issue when the two houses met after the adjournment.

At a press conference later, BJP spokesman Gopinath Munde asserted that the CBI threatened Johri to implicate her unless she agreed to implicate Shah. He pointed out that the CBI team is headed by same Balwinder Singh who was interrogated by Johri in the course of interrogation of the Andhra Pradesh police officers.