Rubabuddin Shaikh, whose name was on the appeal, sought to challenge the acquittal of 22 accused in the high-profile fake encounter probe against Sohrabuddin Shaikh before the Bombay High Court on Thursday. Several Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers were also charged in the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife Kausar Bi, and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.
An acquittal order passed by the Mumbai sessions court was upheld by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad, who had not been able to present enough grounds to overturn the earlier acquittal order.
The case goes back to November, 2005, when Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who was wanted in several criminal cases, was travelling to Sangli with his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati from Hyderabad in a bus. The police officers from Gujarat and Rajasthan police stopped the bus near Zahirabad in Telangana and took the three men prisoner, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said.
On November 26, 2005, the CBI had claimed that Sohrabuddin was murdered in a staged police encounter. Kausar Bi was reportedly murdered shortly after and her body burned to destroy evidence, Kausar Bi was allegedly murdered shortly after, and her body burned in an attempt to destroy evidence. Tulsiram Prajapati, regarded as one of the main witnesses in the case, was killed too in another alleged fake encounter a year later.
Investigators had contended Prajapati had voiced concerns about his life before his death, talking to comrades in the jail, his attorney and the National Human Rights Commission. The agency said the meetings were staged to dispose of witnesses and conceal the alleged conspiracy.
The High Court’s verdict essentially grants a clean chit to all 22 accused in one of the most-watched encounter cases in India.