SOHRAB CASE: HC VERDICT ON DISCHARGE PLEA OF COPS TODAY

The Bombay high court is likely to pronounce on Monday, its verdict on whether or not some senior Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers could be discharged in the 2005-2006 encounter case of suspected gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife and their aide.

Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati were killed in allegedly fake encounters by the police of the two states, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On July 16, a single bench of the high court, presided by Justice AM Badar, had reserved the verdict on five revision applications challenging the discharge granted by a trial court to Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, former Gujarat ATS chief DG Vanzara, Gujarat police officer N K Amin, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh MN and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod.

Justice Badar has been conducting hearings on a daily basis since July 4 on the five revision pleas filed by Sohrabuddin Shaikh’s brother Rubabuddin Shaikh and the CBI.

Rubabuddin had filed three of these five pleas, challenging the discharge granted in the case by the trial court to Pandian, Dinesh and Vanzara. The remaining two pleas were filed by the CBI challenging the discharge granted to Amin and Rathod.

The CBI had booked these five officials, along with 33 other people, as accused in the “fake” encounters.

The Gujarat Police had then claimed Sohrabuddin had terror links. Between 2014 and 2017, a special court in Mumbai, where the case was shifted from Gujarat following a Supreme Court order, discharged 15 of these 38 accused.

Those discharged included 14 police officials and BJP president Amit Shah.

As per the CBI charge sheet, Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a suspected gangster based in Gujarat, and Kausar Bi were abducted by officers of the Gujarat ATS and the Rajasthan Police from near Hyderabad, and killed in a fake encounter in November 2005.

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