Bombay High Court to announce verdict on Sohrabuddin case tomorrow

One of the most debated case of the recent times — 2005-2006 encounter case of suspected gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and their aide — will most likely to get the final verdict on Monday by the Bombay High Court. The court will decide whether it will or not discharge some senior Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers in the ‘Fake’ encounters case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted to the court that senior Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers were involved in the “fake” encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati in 2005-2006.

The matter was heard by a single bench of the high court, presided over by Justice AM Badar, on July 16 and had reserved the order verdict on five revision applications challenging the discharge granted in the case by a trial court to Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, former Gujarat ATS chief DG Vanzara, Gujarat police officer NK Amin, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh MN and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod, reports NDTV.

Conducting hearings on a daily basis since July 4 based on the evidence produced in the court, Justice Badar had finally reserved its order on July 16. The verdict was made after five revision pleas filed by Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s brother Rubabuddin Shaikh and the CBI.

Challenging the discharge granted in the case by the trial court to Pandian, Dinesh and Vanzara, Rubabuddin Sheikh had filed three of these five pleas. The remaining two were filed by the CBI, which challenged the discharge of Amin and Rathod.

The CBI, based on the probe, had booked these five officials, along with 33 other people accusing them in the “fake” encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Kausar Bi in November 2005 and Prajapati in December 2006. However, Gujarat Police had then claimed Sohrabuddin Shaikh had terror links.

Incidentally, a special court in Mumbai had discharged 15 of these 38 accused arrested in the case between 2014-17. Among the 14 discharge include 14 police officials and BJP president Amit Shah. The matter was shifted Bombay High Court after a Supreme Court order.

ALSO READ: Activists Arrests: Bombay High Court pulls up Maharashtra Police for holding press conference