Court issues NBW against accused
A special court on Friday issued a Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) against an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The accused, Balkrishna Chaubey, the then inspector in Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) failed to remain present before the court and attend the proceedings.
Special Judge S J Sharma issued the warrant against Chaubey, who was earlier granted an exemption from remaining present in the court. However, earlier the court had directed him to appear before it on Friday but he failed to comply with the orders.
The court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to arrest Chaubey at the earliest. The court was dissatisfied with the ‘slow pace’ of the trial as some of the accused were not cooperating. “This is certainly not the manner in which to work. It is not as if all parties are not cooperating, but yes, there are some like this accused – Chaubey. If this kind of conduct is shown by every one then it would not be possible for this court to conclude the case expeditiously,” special Judge said.
During the course of the hearing, the court examined a prosecution witness who did not turn hostile. The witness, who had come all the way from Gujarat, was working as a police constable in the ATS at the relevant time. He claimed he reported directly to accused M N Parmar, who was the then Deputy Superintendent of police.
“On the day when the encounter took place, I was on duty and after the incident, I was deployed outside the civic run hospital, as huge crowd had gathered there. This was the hospital where the autopsy took place on the body of Sohrabuddin,” the constable told the court.
Supporting the case of prosecution, the witness told the court he received the clothes and shoes of Sohrabuddin from the hospital and was given the task of handing over the same to ATS in its headquarters. He further told the court he had also carried the six bottles containing the viscera of Sohrabuddin.
After the examination-inchief conducted by the prosecution, none of the defence advocates opted for cross examining the witness. Following which, the special court recorded his statements and posted the matter for further hearing on February 22.