The Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the discharge granted by a trial court of ex-Gujarat ATS chief DG Vanzara and five other police officers Gujarat and Rajasthan, in the case of encounter of suspected gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife and aide, after holding the pleas challenging their discharge were "devoid of merit".
Dismissing revision applications filed by Rubabuddin Shaikh, brother of deceased Sohrabuddin Shaikh, and the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging the discharge of five police officers in the alleged fake encounters, Justice AM Badar of the High Court granted relief to former IPS officers Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and NK Amin of the Gujarat police, Dinesh MN and Dalpat Singh Rathod of the Rajasthan Police.
Justice AM Badar also discharged Gujarat police officer Vipul Aggarwal, a co-accused in the encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati.
Justice Badar held that there was not enough evidence against the accused police officers to directly link them with the alleged fake encounters of Sohrabuddin, Kausarbi and Tulsiram Prajapati. He observed that prior sanction to prosecute a public servant under Section 197 of CrPC was required in the case and that the accused police officers enjoyed this protection under law.
“In the instant case, as allegations made against the discharged accused in charge sheets filed by the prosecuting agencies show that the alleged offence was committed by the respondent/discharged accused no.1 in discharge of his official duty and under the colour of office, even if it is assumed that the discharged accused acted in excess of his official duty, then also he is entitled to claim protection of section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” the Judge noted.
The Prosecution’s case was that in order to curb the nuisance created by Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who was “a dreaded criminal”, accused police officers from both Gujarat and Rajasthan had entered into a criminal conspiracy to eliminate him which they did and in furtherance of this conspiracy, they killed Kausarbi and Tulsiram Prajapati. The Gujarat Police had earlier claimed that Sohrabuddin had links with Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI.
The police officers, whom the High Court granted relief, were among the 33 accused in the "fake" encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kausar Bi in November 2005 and Prajapati in December 2006.
The alleged Sohrabuddin fake encounter case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 at CBI’s request for fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court had clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati’s encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin.