Imphal, March 22: CBI sleuths are searching for the photographer whose photographs show former militant Ch. Sanjit surrounded by some police commandos just before he was killed inside a pharmacy here in the July 23 firing.

The photographs, which also show a man in police uniform dragging Sanjit inside a shop, had triggered a violent protest in Manipur, culminating in a high court order for a CBI probe into the incident.

The police claimed that Sanjit had fired at a frisking party to evade arrest and was later shot dead inside a pharmacy in an exchange of fire. The CBI has already questioned the seven commandos who were suspended in connection with the incident.

The sleuths are now reportedly pinning their hopes on the photographer, whose pictures were published in a Delhi-based news magazine, to find out what really happened on that day.

The photographer in question remains unknown and scribes of the news magazine that published the photographs refused to disclose the person’s identity before the Agrawal Commission which is also probing into the case.

The CBI sleuths, based in Imphal, are now questioning reporters and news photographers of Imphal-based dailies and news publications.

“I was summoned yesterday and the CBI officials asked me whether I knew the photographer and what I had seen that day after I reached the spot. They also asked me whether I have sold any of the photographs I had taken of the incident,” a senior journalist here told The Telegraph.

The sleuths summoned some reporters and news photographers yesterday, too. They asked the photographers about the make of the cameras they had used to take photographs that day and assured all that they would conceal the identity of the photographer if they disclosed his name.

The sleuths have also collected photographs taken by Imphal-based news organisations in order to find out if any of these were shot from the camera used in taking the incriminating photographs.

The sleuths believe that the photographer sold his photographs to an outside publication either for money or for his personal safety or for both.