MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Thursday upheld the 2018 acquittal of 21 police officers from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and a civilian in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Shaikh ‘fake encounter’ case.
Appeals had been filed in April 2019 by Shaikh’s brothers Rubabbudin Shaikh and Nayabuddin Shaikh against the trial court’s acquittal verdict.
“Appeals dismissed,” HC chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad said, pronouncing the order. The brothers, through their counsel Gautam Tiwari, argued that the trial was “flawed” and the acquittals “meritless”. The trial court ruling was reasoned and justified, contended additional solicitor general Anil Singh and CBI counsel Kuldeep Patil, and senior counsel Amit Desai, who appeared for Narainsinh Dabhi, a former Gujarat ATS inspector who was among those cleared.
Sohrabuddin case: Nearly 100 witnesses had turned hostile
Gujarat and Rajasthan police were booked for allegedly staging the encounter of the gangster in the early hours of Nov 26, 2005 between Narol Circle and Vishala Circle in Ahmedabad and also of Tulsiram Parajapati at Ambaji in Gujarat on the morning of Dec 28, 2006. The policemen also faced trial for the disappearance and killing of Sohrabuddin’s wife Kauser Bi, who was allegedly burned on Nov 27, 2005 and her body disposed of on Nov 28 in a village called Illol in Gujarat, which is situated on the banks of the Narmada river. The investigation was initially handled by Gujarat’s ATS and CID (crime) before Supreme Court transferred it to the CBI in 2010, with the trial shifted to a special trial court in Mumbai. Between 2014 to 2017, the special court discharged 16 accused, including then Gujarat minister Amit Shah, senior IPS officers Dinesh M N, Rajkumar Pandiyan and D G Vanzara, and former Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria.
The Bombay high court has dismissed as “meritless” the appeal by Sohrabuddin Shaikh’s brothers against the acquittal of 21 cops and a civilian in the “fake encounter” case.
