Witnesses’ safety: CBI gets rap

HC says agency lacks seriousness in prosecuting accused

Bombay high court on Monday rapped the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for ‘failing’ to protect witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case and for lacking seriousness in prosecuting those accused in the case. “What protection are you giving to the witnesses in the case?” Justice Revati Mohite-Dere asked additional solicitor general Anil Singh, who represented the central agency.

The question came after senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who argued for IPS officer Dr Narendra Amin, pointed out that the witness on whose statement the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had relied had turned hostile.

“Is it not your duty to protect the witnesses?” justice MohiteDere asked Singh, and reminded the additional solicitor general that “it was the CBI’s duty to protect witnesses [from being intimidated or lured by accused persons].”

Irked with the fact that most of the prosecution witnesses examined before the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in the city had turned hostile, the judge also commented that the central agency lacked the seriousness with which it ought to have conducted the trial.

“You cannot just file a charge sheet and leave it at that,” said the judge, who felt that “the very objective behind transferring the case from Gujarat to Mumbai — to ensure a fair trial, as the accused persons were very influential — was frustrated by lack of seriousness and inaction on part of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in protecting the witnesses”. On November 23, 2005, Sheikh, a local gangster, was travelling on a Hyderabad-Sangli bus along with his wife Kausarbi and aide Tulsiram Prajapati when they were allegedly abducted by a team of policemen attached to the Gujarat anti-terrorist squad and members of the Special Task Force from Rajasthan.

The couple was allegedly detained at a private farm house and two days later, Sheikh was killed in a “fake encounter”. Kausarbi was allegedly killed the next day.

Tulsiram, who had been shown arrested in a case in Rajasthan, was killed in December 2006 — again in an allegedly fake encounter.

What protection are you giving to the witnesses in the case? Is it not your duty to protect (them)? You cannot just file a charge sheet and leave it at that. BOMBAY HIGH COURT TO CBI