Sohrabuddin case: High Court upholds clean chit to cops

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday dismissed the revision applications against police officers discharged by the trial court in the allegedly fake encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausarbi, and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati.

The bench of justice AM Badar had been hearing the revision applications — three filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin Shaikh, and two by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) — since July 4.

Rubabuddin had filed revision applications against the discharge orders by the trial court favouring IPS officers Rajkumar Pandiyan, Dinesh MN, and Gujarat deputy inspector general of police (DIG) DG Vanzara.

The CBI had filed revision applications against discharge orders favouring Gujarat police officer NK Amin and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod. Apart from the five revision applications, the court was also hearing the revision application of Gujarat Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Vipul Aggarwal whose discharge application had been rejected by the trial court.

According to the order, the discharge of Pandiyan by the trial court was valid as he had carried out his duty. Not doing his job would have been termed as dereliction of duty and hence the discharge order by the trial court was valid. Justice Badar also held that the discharge of Pamdiyan and Vanzara, “for want of evidence and absence of material under section 277 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) as well as dropping of proceedings for want of sanction as envisaged by section 197 of CRPC” was valid.

With regards to the discharge of Dinesh MN, the superintendent of police, Udaipur, Rajathan, Badar again upheld the trial court order which was passed for want of evidence and absence of material under section 227 of CRPC as well as dropping of proceedings for want of sanction to prosecute.

The justice also upheld the discharge of Narendra Amin and Dalpat Singh Rathod on similar grounds.