Bombay High Court upholds acquittal of 22 accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case

The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed petitions filed by Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, challenging a Mumbai sessions court verdict that had acquitted 22 accused, including police personnel from Gujarat and Rajasthan, in the alleged fake encounter case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Gautam Ankhad rejected the appeals, observing that there were no sufficient grounds to interfere with the trial court’s judgment acquitting the accused.

Background of the case

The case dates back to November 23, 2005, when Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra. According to the investigation, police personnel from Gujarat and Rajasthan intercepted their bus near Zaheerabad in present-day Telangana and detained all three.

Thereafter, Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were allegedly brought to Gujarat, while Tulsiram Prajapati was kept in custody and later shown arrested from Bhilwara in Rajasthan on November 26, 2005 before being sent to jail.

CBI alleged fake encounter

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a staged encounter during the intervening night of November 25 and 26, 2005. The agency further alleged that Kausar Bi was also murdered subsequently and her body was allegedly burnt on November 28, 2005 to destroy evidence.

At the time, Gujarat Police had claimed that Sohrabuddin was linked to the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and had come to Gujarat with plans to assassinate a “senior political leader”.

Tulsiram Prajapati encounter

More than a year later, on December 28, 2006, Tulsiram Prajapati was also killed in an encounter, which the CBI described as fake.

The investigating agency alleged that Prajapati was a key witness to the abduction of Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi and was eliminated as part of a conspiracy to silence him. The CBI had also stated that Prajapati had earlier expressed fears for his life before fellow inmates and the National Human Rights Commission.

Long legal battle

The CBI took over the investigation in 2010 following directions from the Supreme Court.

In 2018, a special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted all 22 accused, citing lack of evidence. During the trial, statements of 210 witnesses were recorded, of whom 92 turned hostile.

With the Bombay High Court now upholding the acquittal order, the long legal battle pursued by Rubabuddin Sheikh and Narmadabai, mother of Tulsiram Prajapati, has suffered another setback.