HC: Trial court made ‘erroneous’ observations in Vanzara's discharge

The Bombay High Court on Thursday remarked that prima facie the trial court, in its order granting discharge to Gujarat ATS chief D G Vanzara last year in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case, had made some "erroneous" observations.

The remarks were made by Justice A M Badar, who is hearing a bunch of revision applications challenging the discharge granted by the trial court to several senior IPS officers of Gujarat and Rajasthan police, including Vanzara. The police officials have been charged by the Gujarat CID and CBI for the "fake" encounters of Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati.

Justice Badar made the remark after the lawyer for Shaikh's brother Rubabuddin argued that the special court's order granting discharge to Vanzara was erroneous. The lawyer, Gautam Tiwari, argued that, in the order passed on August 1, 2017, the trial court had held that there was no prima facie evidence that placed Vanzara at the site of the said incidents.

However, the trial court had failed to take note of the fact that Vanzara was the head of the ATS team that had abducted and killed Shaikh and the others, he said.

"They were all acting on the orders of their chief (Vanzara). It was Vanzara who had orchestrated the entire plan. He needn't have remained present at all the crime spots since he was giving the orders," Tiwari said.

Justice Badar then remarked that the discharge order for Vanzara, that was passed in August last year, did not take into account the fact that he needn't have been present at the spot.

"This discharge order does not take into consideration any factors relevant to Vanzara's case. It is as if the judge mistakenly passed the same order as Pandian's in Vanzara's case. It seems that the judge re-discharged Pandian instead of granting discharge to Vanzara," Justice Badar said. Justice Badar has been conducting hearings on a daily basis on three revision pleas filed by Rubabuddin and another two by the CBI in the case.

Rubabuddin has challenged the discharge granted to Vanzara, Gujarat IPS officer Dinesh M N and Rajasthan IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian.

The CBI has challenged the discharge of Gujarat IPS officer N K Amin and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod.