Close on the heels of a similar relief granted to her former senior colleague PC Pande, a special CBI court on Monday dropped charges against Gujarat’s Additional Director-General of Police Geeta Johri in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, for want of mandatory sanction from the State Government for
her prosecution.
In his order granting relief to Johri, Special CBI Judge MB Gosavi noted, “Prosecution against Johri stands dropped for want of sanction”
The dropping of charges against Johri comes a month after the CBI court discharged Gujarat's former DGP PC Pande in the fake encounter killing case of Tulsiram Prajapati, an aide of slain gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, on identical grounds.
like in Johri’s case, Special CBI court judge Gosavi, who is presiding over the trial of the twin fake encounter cases, had discharged Pande for want of mandatory sanction from the Gujarat Government for his prosecution. “For want of sanction, the charges against the accused PC Pande are dropped," Judge Gosavi had said.
The CBI’s charge against Johri was that she had delayed the investigations in the Tulsiram Prajapati case and also allegedly destroyed some case records. “We had moved discharge application saying that mandatory sanction from the government was not obtained and hence she cannot be prosecuted,” her lawyer Sachin Pawar said.
Sohrabuddin, an underworld criminal having alleged links with Pakistan-based terror outfit lashkar-e-Taiba, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were travelling in a bus from Hyderabad to Sangli in November 2005 when they were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat police. Sohrabuddin and his wife were allegedly killed in a staged encounter near Gandhinagar a few days later.
Prajapati, an eye-witness to the encounter, was killed by the police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.
The Soharbuddin and Prajapati encounter cases were transferred to Mumbai following a Supreme court order.
In 2013, the Supreme Court clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati's encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin. Both the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Prajapati encounter cases are being heard simultaneously in the Mumbai CBI Court.