MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Thursday upheld the 2018 acquittal of 21 police officers from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and a civilian in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Shaikh ‘fake encounter’ case.Appeals had been filed in April 2019 by Shaikh’s brothers Rubabbudin Shaikh and Nayabuddin Shaikh against the trial court’s acquittal verdict. “Appeals dismissed,” HC chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad said, pronouncing the order.The brothers, through their counsel Gautam Tiwari, argued that the trial was “flawed” and the acquittals “meritless”.
The trial court ruling was reasoned and justified, contended additional solicitor general Anil Singh and CBI counsel Kuldeep Patil, and senior counsel Amit Desai, who appeared for Narainsinh Dabhi, a former Gujarat ATS inspector who was among those cleared.
Sohrabuddin case: Nearly 100 witnesses had turned hostile.
The Bombay high court has dismissed as “meritless” the appeal by Sohrabuddin Shaikh’s brothers against the acquittal of 21 cops and a civilian in the “fake encounter” case. Gujarat and Rajasthan police were booked for allegedly staging the encounter of the gangster in the early hours of Nov 26, 2005 between Narol Circle and Vishala Circle in Ahmedabad and also of Tulsiram Parajapati at Ambaji in Gujarat on the morning of Dec 28, 2006. The policemen also faced trial for the disappearance and killing of Sohrabuddin’s wife Kauser Bi, who was allegedly burnt on Nov 27, 2005 and her body disposed of on Nov 28 in a village called Illol in Gujarat, which is situated on the banks of the Narmada river.
The investigation was initially handled by Gujarat’s ATS and CID (crime) before Supreme Court transferred it to the CBI in 2010, with the trial shifted to a special trial court in Mumbai.Between 2014 to 2017, the special court discharged 16 accused, including then Gujarat minister Amit Shah, senior IPS officers Dinesh MN, Rajkumar Pandiyan and DG Vanzara, and former Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria.The civilian among those whose acquittals were upheld on Thursday was Rajendra Jeerawala, owner of a guesthouse in Gujarat. According to CBI, he had knowledge that his guesthouse was used by policemen to keep Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi and thus facilitated their illegal detention.Sohrabuddin’s brothers, both residents of Madhya Pradesh, said that the loss of their brother and sister-in-law was irreparable and the state, represented through the CBI, had not filed any appeal challenging the acquittal judgment. The ASG said CBI, having “accepted” the trial court’s verdict, did not appeal. Desai also argued that the acquittal was wellreasoned, with no evidence whatsoever to establish any criminal conspiracy and its reversal, not even a “bleak possibility.“In his ruling, special judge SJ Sharma found no evidence to show conspiracy and said CBI had probed the case with a “premeditated theory and script intended to somehow implicate political leaders”. Nearly 100 witnesses turned hostile during trial. The special court found their recant truthful and said the CBI had incorrectly recorded their statements.The appeals by the brothers, however, argued that “observations and conclusion” of the special trial court judge were “wholly and completely contradictory to the evidence at hand”, “devoid of any reasonableness” and based on “unwarranted assumptions and manifestly erroneous appreciation of evidence”. This leads to miscarriage of justice and hence intervention by the HC was needed to secure ends of justice, they had said.The senior counsel for some of the accused argued that the trial court verdict merited no interference. The high court agreed.
