Sohrabuddin encounter case: Deceased’s brother moves SC against acquittal of 22 accused

New Delhi: The younger brother of deceased Sohrabuddin Shaikh has moved the Supreme Court challenging the recent judgment of the Bombay High Court which upheld the acquittal of all 22 accused, including 21 police personnel, in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi, and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.

As per details available on the apex court’s official website, the petition has been filed by Nayabuddin Shaikh and registered as Diary No. 49466/2026.

The petition was filed on August 13 at around 10.52 p.m. and is currently shown as “Cases under Defect List valid for 90 Days”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been arrayed as the respondent in the matter, while the petition has been filed through advocate Achint Kumar.

The plea challenges the judgment delivered by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad, which had dismissed the appeals filed by Sohrabuddin’s brothers against the December 2018 acquittal of all 22 accused by the special CBI court.

The High Court, in its May 7 judgment, had declined to interfere with the trial court’s findings, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish the alleged conspiracy and killings through reliable evidence.

The appeals before the Bombay High Court had sought setting aside of the acquittal or, alternatively, a retrial under Section 386(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The appellants had argued that the trial suffered from serious flaws, including failure to summon magistrates before whom some hostile witnesses had earlier recorded their statements. They had also alleged that several witnesses subsequently claimed that their statements had not been accurately recorded during the trial.

However, the Bombay High Court was not persuaded to overturn the acquittal.

The CBI had also informed the High Court 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, Sohrabuddin was killed in an alleged 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 secretly disposed of. Prajapati, who was considered a key eyewitness in the case, was subsequently killed in another alleged fake encounter on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006.

The investigation, initially conducted by the Gujarat Police, was later transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court. The apex court also shifted the trial from Gujarat to Mumbai in 2012. The trial was conducted against serving and retired police personnel from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, besides a farmhouse owner accused of illegally confining the victims.

The proceedings had also witnessed the death of Special CBI Judge B.H. Loya in 2014 while the trial was pending. Subsequently, Judge M.B. Gosavi discharged then BJP leader and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah from the case in December 2014.

On December 21, 2018, Special CBI Judge S.J. Sharma acquitted all 22 accused, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish the charges of conspiracy and murder beyond reasonable doubt. The trial court had recorded that 210 witnesses were examined during the proceedings, of whom 92 had turned hostile. It had observed that the accused could not be convicted merely on the basis of moral considerations or suspicion in the absence of cogent evidence establishing their involvement in the alleged conspiracy and killings.

IANS