EncounterCase – Bombay High Court Upholds Acquittal in Sohrabuddin Case
EncounterCase – The Bombay High Court on Thursday confirmed the acquittal of all 22 accused in the widely discussed Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case, bringing another major legal chapter in the nearly two-decade-old matter to a close.
The division bench led by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad rejected appeals filed by Rubabuddin and Nayabuddin Shaikh, brothers of Sohrabuddin Shaikh. The appeals had challenged a special CBI court ruling delivered in December 2018 that cleared all accused individuals due to lack of sufficient evidence.
High Court Declines Request for Retrial
The petitioners had urged the High Court to set aside the earlier acquittal and order a fresh trial in the case. They argued that several aspects of the original proceedings were flawed and pointed to claims made by certain witnesses who later stated their testimonies had not been properly recorded during the trial.
However, the High Court dismissed these arguments and upheld the lower court’s findings. A detailed version of the judgment is expected to be released later.
Accused Included Police Personnel From Two States
Out of the 22 people acquitted in the case, 21 were junior-level police officers belonging to Gujarat and Rajasthan police units. Investigators had alleged that these officers were involved in the abduction and subsequent staged killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi, and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.
The remaining accused was a Gujarat farmhouse owner, who was alleged to have allowed illegal detention of Shaikh and Kausar Bi before their deaths.
Background of the Encounter Allegations
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra along with Prajapati in November 2005 when they were allegedly taken into custody by a police team during the night of November 22 and 23.
Investigators claimed the couple and Prajapati were separated and transported in different vehicles after being detained. The CBI later alleged that Shaikh was killed in an encounter near Ahmedabad on November 26, 2005, by a joint team of Gujarat and Rajasthan police personnel. Kausar Bi was allegedly killed a few days afterward.
Tulsiram Prajapati, considered an important witness in the case, was lodged in Udaipur Central Jail before he too was killed in another alleged encounter near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006.
CBI Chose Not to Challenge Acquittal
The special CBI court that delivered the 2018 verdict had concluded that prosecutors failed to establish a clear conspiracy or provide convincing evidence linking the accused to the alleged killings. The court also observed that the prosecution could not prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The court further noted that investigators were unable to establish any direct connection between the police officers and certain political figures who had earlier been named in the case but were later discharged.
In 2019, the victim’s family approached the Bombay High Court against the acquittal order. However, the CBI informed the High Court last year that it had accepted the trial court’s decision and would not file an appeal against the acquittals.
Supreme Court Had Transferred Investigation
The case had drawn national attention over the years due to allegations involving law enforcement agencies and claims of staged encounters. The Supreme Court later transferred the investigation to the CBI and shifted the trial proceedings to Mumbai to ensure an independent hearing.
With the High Court now affirming the acquittals, the legal proceedings in one of India’s most closely followed encounter cases have moved closer to finality unless challenged further before the Supreme Court.