Bombay HC upholds acquittal in Sohrabuddin encounter case

Bombay High Court upheld the acquittal of all accused in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati. The court dismissed appeals challenging the 2018 CBI court verdict, citing insufficient evidence and hostile witnesses

Mumbai/New Delhi: The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of all 22 accused, including 21 police personnel, in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kauser Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad dismissed the appeals filed by Sohrabuddin’s brothers, Rubabuddin and Nayabuddin, challenging the December 2018 judgment of a special CBI court acquitting all the accused in the case.

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The appeals, pending since 2019, had sought quashing of the trial court’s verdict or a direction for retrial under Section 386(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The appellants, who had approached the Bombay High Court in the capacity of victims family members, contended that the trial was fundamentally flawed and that the special court had based its findings on erroneous appreciation of evidence and unwarranted assumptions.

During the hearing, the appellants argued that the prosecution failed to summon magistrates before whom certain hostile witnesses had earlier recorded their statements. They also alleged that several witnesses later claimed their testimonies were not accurately recorded during the trial.

However, the Bombay High Court was not inclined to interfere with the acquittal recorded by the special CBI court. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), during the proceedings before the Bombay HC, stated that it had accepted the 2018 acquittal verdict and had not taken a decision to challenge it in appeal.

The case relates to the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kauser Bi and Prajapati from a luxury bus travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli on the night of November 22-23, 2005.

According to the prosecution, Shaikh was killed in a staged encounter near Ahmedabad in November 2005 by a joint team of Gujarat and Rajasthan Police personnel. Kauser Bi was allegedly killed a few days later, and her body was disposed of secretly. Prajapati, considered a key eyewitness in the case, was killed in another alleged fake encounter on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006.

The investigation, initially conducted in Gujarat, was later transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court, which in 2012 also shifted the trial to Mumbai. The trial was presided over by multiple judges over the years, including Judge B.H. Loya, who died in 2014 during the pendency of the proceedings. Subsequently, Judge M.B. Gosavi discharged current Union Home Minister Amit Shah from the case in December 2014.

The trial thereafter proceeded against the remaining accused, comprising serving and retired police personnel from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, as well as a farmhouse owner accused of illegally confining the victims.

On December 21, 2018, Special CBI Judge S.J. Sharma acquitted all 22 accused, holding that the prosecution failed to establish the charges of conspiracy and murder beyond a reasonable doubt. The special court had observed that 210 witnesses were examined during the trial, but 92 of them turned hostile, leading to the collapse of the prosecution’s case. In its judgment, the trial court had said that the accused could not be convicted merely on moral grounds or suspicion in the absence of cogent evidence linking them to the alleged conspiracy and killings.