The special CBI court today acquitted all the accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case in Mumbai due to lack of evidence. The court said that the government has put in a lot of effort but there was no satisfactory evidence and the witnesses had turned hostile.
Special CBI Court: Govt machinery and prosecution put in a lot of effort, 210 witnesses were brought but satisfactory evidence didn’t come and witnesses turned hostile. No fault of prosecutor if witnesses don’t speak https://t.co/BjjlLhZ0PY
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2018
The special CBI court also said that the allegations that Tulsiram Prajapati was murdered through conspiracy is also not true.
Special CBI court: Allegation that Tulsiram Prajapati was murdered through a conspiracy is not true https://t.co/BjjlLhZ0PY
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2018
According to the CBI, Shaikh, a notorious gangster, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati were abducted by Gujarat police from a bus when they were on their way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra on the intervening night of November 22 and 23, 2005.
Shaikh was killed in an alleged fake encounter on November 26, 2005, near Ahmedabad while the CBI claims his wife Kauser Bi was killed three days later and her body was disposed of. A year later, on December 27, 2006, Prajapati was also shot dead by Gujarat and Rajasthan police in an alleged fake encounter near Chapri on Gujarat-Rajasthan border.
The case was initially probed by the Gujarat CID before the CBI took over in 2010. In 2013, the Supreme Court directed that the trial is shifted to Mumbai from Gujarat on the central agency’s request to ensure a fair trial. In the course of the trial, as many as 210 witnesses were produced of which 92 turned hostile.
A total of 38 accused were charge sheeted of which 16, including BJP President Amit Shah, then Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, former Gujarat police chief PC Pande and former senior Gujarat Police officer DG Vanzara were discharged in the case.
