Sohrabuddin Encounter Case: Special CBI Court Frees All 22 Accused
Image Courtesy: Hindi Firstpost
NEW DELHI: A special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted all 22 accused in the controversial Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case and the rape-cum-murder of Kausar Bi, Sohrabuddin’s wife, saying that the witnesses and proofs were not satisfactory to prove conspiracy and murder.
"Witnesses and proofs were not satisfactory to prove conspiracy and murder in the 2005 encounter killing," said Special CBI judge S.J. Sharma, who observed that the circumstantial evidence was not substantial, according to an IANS report. Sharma was delivering his last judgment before his transfer.
As per legal new website, Live Law, Sharma said: “I am sorry to the families of all the deceased but the way evidence was presented before me, prosecutions’ case against the accused could not be substantiated”.
Judge Sharma also observed that “Sohrabuddin died due to bullet injuries that are also substantiated by the post-mortem report whether these accused were authors of the said crime could not be substantiated. There is circumstantial evidence but no substantial evidence,” Live Law reported.
The accused were mostly police officers from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Initially, 38 people were accused in the case, of which 16 people were discharged, including the present BJP president Amit Shah and former Gujarat top cop D. G Vanzara. According to reports, 92 prosecutions witnesses had turned hostile.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, an alleged gangster, his wife Kauser Bi, were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005 and 2006 by the Gujarat Police, while the formers’ aide, Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter in 2006 in a joint operation by the Gujarat and the Rajasthan police.
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