Sohrabuddin Shaikh case: Verdict on discharge of cops likely today

Mumbai: The Bombay high court is likely to pronounce on Monday, its verdict on whether or not some senior Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers deserve to be discharged in the 2005-2006 encounter of suspected gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife, and their aide. The police of the two states killed Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi, and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati in a “fake” encounter in 2005-2006, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On July 16, a single bench of the high court, presided over by Justice A.M. Badar, reserved the verdict on five revision applications challenging the discharge granted by a trial court to Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian; former Gujarat ATS chief D.G. Vanzara; Gujarat police officer N.K. Amin; Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M.N.; and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod.

Justice Badar had been conducting hearings on a daily basis since July 4 on the five revision pleas filed by Sohrabuddin Sh-aikh’s brother Rubab-uddin Shaikh and the CBI. Rubabuddin Shaikh filed three of these five pleas, challenging the discharge granted by the trial court to Pandian, Vanzara, and Dinesh. The remaining two pleas were filed by the CBI, challenging the dischar-ge granted to Amin and Rathod.

The CBI had booked these five officials, along with 33 other people, as accused in the “fake” encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Kausar Bi in November 2005, and Prajapati in December 2006. At the time, the Gujarat police claimed that Sohrabuddin Shai-kh had terror links. Between 2014 and 2017, a special court in Mumbai, to which the case was shifted from Gujarat following a Supreme Court order, discharged 15 of these 38 accused. Those discharged included 14 police officials and BJP president Amit Shah.