Sohrabuddin case: SC to examine plea against acquittal of 22 accused
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to uphold the acquittal of 22 accused, including 21 police personnel, in the 2005 alleged fake encounter case involving gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice on a petition filed by Nayabuddin Shaikh, Sohrabuddin’s brother, challenging the Bombay High Court’s May 7 judgment that upheld the acquittal.
The bench indicated that it would examine selected statements of prosecution witnesses relevant to the acquittal rather than call for the entire case record.
The Chief Justice said the court wanted to examine three or four witness statements that the petitioner considered vital to the case.
Justice Bagchi also noted that 92 prosecution witnesses had turned hostile, saying the issue needed to be considered while examining whether the trial was fair and just.
The petition challenges the Bombay High Court’s May 7 order dismissing appeals filed by Rubabuddin and Nayabuddin Shaikh against the December 2018 judgment of a special CBI court in Mumbai, which had acquitted all 22 accused.
Of the 22 people acquitted, 21 were police officers from Gujarat and Rajasthan. The remaining accused was the owner of a farmhouse in Gujarat where, according to the prosecution case, Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were illegally detained.
According to the prosecution, Sohrabuddin, Kausar Bi and Prajapati were travelling by bus from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra when they were allegedly taken into custody by a police team on the night of November 22-23, 2005.
The three were allegedly taken away in separate vehicles.
The CBI alleged that Sohrabuddin was killed on November 26, 2005, near Ahmedabad in an encounter involving Gujarat and Rajasthan police personnel. Kausar Bi was allegedly killed three days later.
Prajapati, who was lodged in Udaipur Central Jail and was considered a key witness to the alleged encounter, was killed in a police encounter near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border on December 27, 2006.
The Supreme Court’s decision to examine the plea does not by itself alter the acquittals, which remain in force unless the court subsequently decides otherwise.
