The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the acquittal of 22 individuals, including 21 police officers, in connection with the alleged fake encounter deaths of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi, and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati in 2005.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana issued notice on a petition filed by Shaikh’s brother, Nayabuddin Shaikh, contesting a judgment that cleared all the accused.
Instead of calling for the full judicial record, the bench asked the petitioner to submit select depositions to assess the grounds of the exoneration. Chief Justice Kant stated that the court would review three to four witness statements considered vital by the petitioner to evaluate the acquittal.
Fairness of Trial Under Scrutiny
During the proceedings, the bench highlighted irregularities during the trial phase. Justice Bagchi observed that the hostility of 92 prosecution witnesses was a serious concern that warranted examination to determine whether the trial had been conducted in a fair and just manner.
The current proceedings arise from an appeal against a May 7 verdict delivered by the Bombay High Court, which upheld the acquittals originally handed down by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai in December 2018. The High Court had dismissed separate appeals previously submitted by Shaikh’s brothers, Rubabuddin and Nayabuddin Shaikh.
The 22 acquitted individuals comprise 21 police personnel drawn from the Gujarat and Rajasthan state police forces, along with a Gujarat farmhouse owner accused by investigators of providing the location where Shaikh and his wife were unlawfully detained.
Prosecution Case and Timeline of Events
According to the prosecution, the sequence of events began on the night of November 22-23, 2005, when a police team intercepted an interstate passenger bus travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra.
Investigators alleged that Shaikh, Kausar Bi, and Prajapati were taken into custody from the bus and separated into different vehicles.
According to findings by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Shaikh was killed on November 26, 2005, near Ahmedabad in an encounter staged by police officers from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Kausar Bi was allegedly killed three days after her husband’s death.
Prajapati, who was subsequently detained in Udaipur Central Jail and identified by investigators as a central witness to the prior abductions, was fatally shot near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border during a police encounter on December 27, 2006.
