Sohrabuddin Shaikh ‘fake encounter’ case: Bombay HC upholds discharge of Vanzara, 4 other cops

NEW DELHI: The Bombay high court on Monday dismissed the appeals challenging the discharge of several Gujarat and Rajasthan senior police officers, including DG Vanzara , as accused parties in the allegedly fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh , his wife and an aide.According to the CBI, Shaikh, and his wife Kausarbi, were killed in an allegedly fake encounter in November 2005, while their aide Tulsiram Prajapati was killed similarly around a year later, through an alleged conspiracy by Gujarat and Rajasthan police.The court was hearing five revision applications challenging the discharge granted in the case by a trial court to Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, former Gujarat ATS chief D Vanzara, Gujarat police officer N K Amin, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M N and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod.Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin Shaikh had filed three of these five pleas, challenging the discharge granted in the case by the trial court to Pandian, Dinesh and Vanzara. The remaining two pleas were filed by the CBI challenging the discharge granted to Amin and Rathod.The CBI had booked these five officials, along with 33 other people, as accused in the "fake" encounters of Shaikh and his wife in November 2005 and Prajapati in December 2006.The Gujarat Police had then claimed Sohrabuddin had terror links.Between 2014 and 2017, a special court in Mumbai, where the case was moved to from Gujarat following a Supreme Court order, discharged 15 of these 38 accused.Those discharged included 14 police officials and BJP president Amit Shah.As per the CBI charge sheet, Sohrabuddin, a suspected gangster based in Gujarat, and his wife, were abducted by officers of the Gujarat ATS and the Rajasthan Police from near Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter in November 2005.Prajapati, an eye-witness to these killings, was shot dead in another staged encounter in December 2006 by some Rajasthan Police officials at the behest of the Gujarat and Rajasthan officers, who had been involved in the killing of the husband-wife duo, the CBI had claimed.The encounter cases of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife, and Prajapati were clubbed together in 2013 after the apex court directed that the trial be shifted to Mumbai from Gujarat.