MUMBAI: The verdict in the case of alleged fake encounters of Soharabuddin Shaikh and his close aide Tulsiram Prajapati and the gruesome rape and murder of Shaikh’s wife Kausar Bi is likely to come on Friday.
The special CBI Court presided over by Additional Sessions Judge S J Sharma, heard the final arguments in the politically sensitive case for about a week beginning December 3. After the arguments were over the court started dictating the judgement, which would be pronounced on Friday.
Though one of the key witnesses had requested the court that he be re-examined for his testimony was incomplete, the application is unlikely to have any bearing on the pronouncement of the judgment, senior lawyers associated with the case have opined.
Of the 38 accused in the case, 16 have been discharged at various stages. The special CBI court discharged 15, while the Bombay High Court discharged one. Of the 210 witnesses examined in the case, 92 have turned hostile.
The fake encounter came to light when a few police officers involved in the encounter, after getting drunk, boasted about it before a journalist. The encounter allegedly took place in 2005 and the first media report on it appeared only in 2006, around when Soharabuddin Shaikh’s brother Rubabuddin filed a petition before the court calling the encounter fake.
Police officers probing the case faced allegations from both the sides and the case was handed over to the CBI.
BJP national president Amit Shah was the home minister of Gujarat in 2005 when Shaikh was killed in the alleged fake encounter. He was jailed in 2010 in the case but was discharged in 2014. Judge BH Loya, who was hearing this case, died at Nagpur in December 2014.
That too came to light in a media report. In August 2017, the special court dropped charges against former Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief D G Vanzara and former Superintendent of Police from Rajasthan, M N Dinesh, in the case.
An attempt to challenge the discharge of Shah in the case, by a lawyer’s association, was turned down by the court earlier this year.
Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?
A hardened criminal in his mid-thirties, Sohrabuddin Sheikh belonged to Zarnia village in Madhya Pradesh. He operated in Udaipur, Ahmedabad and Ujjain. According to Gujarat police, he had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.
A history-sheeter with several serious crimes registered against him, he was booked for arms smuggling in 1995. He ran an extortion racket. In 2002, he teamed up with Prajapati and killed his rival Hamid Lala.
He had threatened the Patni brothers of Rajasthan-based R K Marbles in 2004 and demanded extortion money. The harassed marble traders lobby from Gujarat and Rajasthan contacted then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah.
A plan was hatched and orders given to Vanzara. All this is said to have happened while there were no cases registered against him in Gujarat.
HOW IT HAPPENED
November 22-23, 2005: Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and close aide Tulsiram Prajapati allegedly picked up by Gujarat Police from Sangli in Maharashtra, while on their way from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad by bus.
November 26: Sohrabuddin allegedly killed in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad.
November 28: Kauser Bi allegedly raped and murdered. Her body was burnt.
December 2005: Sheikh’s brother, Rubabuddin, writes to the Chief Justice of India demanding a probe into the killing of his brother. The SC orders Gujarat police to probe how he was killed and what happened to Kausar Bi.
November 2006: Journalist Prashant Dayal gets to know of the fake encounter from drunk policemen, publishes story in Dainik Bhaskar.
December 28, 2006: Prajapati killed in police officer D G Vanzara’s village Chapri.
April 2007: Deputy Inspector General D G Vanjara arrested in the case.
January, 2010: SC hands over case to CBI.
July 23, 2010: CBI charge-sheets Shah as accused. He was also charged with destruction of evidence and booked under the Arms Act.
July 25, 2010: CBI arrests Shah.
October 29, 2010: Gujarat HC grants bail to Shah for lack of evidence.
September 27, 2012: SC transfers trial from Gujarat to Mumbai.
April 8, 2013: SC clubs Prajapati case with Sohrabuddin case.
September 2013: Still in jail, Vanzara writes to Gujarat government, accusing the government of ordering the fake encounters and then ensuring that police officers remained in prison to save their own skin.
December 30, 2014: CBI court gives a clean chit to Shah in the case.
August 1, 2016: SC rejects petition challenging the discharge of Shah.
August 1, 2017: CBI drops charges against Vanzara and others.
December 3, 2018: Final arguments begin in the case.