Sohrabuddin case: 22 accused let off for want of proof

Sorry for lives lost but no evidence established, says judge; brother of deceased to move SC

MUMBAI: All remaining 22 accused, mostly junior level police officers, in the alleged encounter killings of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi, and associate, Tulsiram Prajapati, were acquitted on Friday by a special CBI court, which cited insufficient evidence even as it expressed sorrow over the loss of three lives.

Several others have already been discharged in the case. At one point, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah was arrested with regard to the case (and released on bail), but he was discharged in December 2014.

Other high profile accused discharged in the case are former Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria and police officers from three states, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, including two former Gujarat director generals of police PC Pande and Geeta Johri and deputy inspector general DG Vanzara.

“I feel sorry for the families, since three lives were lost, but I am helpless,” said additional sessions judge SJ Sharma on Friday, pointing out that the “system requires courts to go strictly by substantive evidence on record and there is no substantial evidence” to hold the accused guilty in the case.

The judge, who delivered his last judgment before retiring, said that on the basis of evidence on the record, he could not hold the accused responsible for the death of Sheikh and Kausar Bi. “When this court ultimately went through all the evidence and testimonies on record, it concluded that no case of conspiracy could be established. Also, no link between these 22 persons and the three deaths could be established,” he said.

Sheikh’s brother, Rubabuddin Sheikh, who was present in court on Friday, said he was disappointed at the verdict and would contest it in the Supreme Court. NEWDELHI: The Delhi assembly on Friday passed a resolution demanding that Bharat Ratna awarded to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi be withdrawn over the 1984 anti-sikh riots, which it termed as a “genocide”.

The resolution moved by AAP legislature Jarnail Singh was passed by a voice vote in the House.

The Delhi government should “strongly” convey in writing to the Union home ministry (MHA) that justice continues to elude the families and near-dear ones of the victims of the worst “genocide” in the history of India’s national capital, the resolution said.

The House directed the government to impress upon the MHA that it should take steps to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws, as recommended by the Delhi high court in its recent landmark judgment sentencing Sajjan Kumar and other convicts to life imprisonment.

A former Congress MP, Sajjan Kumar, has quit the party following his conviction in a case related to the 1984 anti-sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party and the government following his mother’s demise, was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, in 1991.