The Bombay High Court on Wednesday criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation for not helping it enough to understand the agency’s case against the accused in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.
Since February 9, the court has been hearing petitions filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Sheikh’s brother against the discharge of several police officers in the 2005 case.
“It is the primary duty of a prosecuting agency to place all evidence on record before the court,” Justice Revati Mohite-Dere said, according to PTI. “However, in this case, despite the court’s repeated queries, the CBI has chosen to argue only on the role of the two officials whose discharge it has challenged.”
Without the CBI’s assistance, the bench is still unclear on the prosecution’s overall case, the judge said. The court has now asked the agency to submit details of all the witnesses’ statements in the case.
On February 12 as well, the bench had rebuked the CBI for witnesses turning hostile. It had asked the agency to specify the measures it was taking to protect witnesses. “Some of them have turned hostile,” Justice Revati Mohite-Dere had said. “Is this the seriousness with which CBI is conducting the trial?”
The CBI has filed two petitions challenging the discharge of Dalpat Singh Rathod, a constable with the Rajasthan police and NK Amin who was with the Gujarat Police. Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin Sheikh has also filed pleas contesting the release of former Deputy Inspector-General of Gujarat DG Vanzara, Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh MN, and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan.
Out of 38 accused in the case, 15 have been discharged, including Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah. Shah was the home minister of Gujarat when Sheikh, a wanted criminal, and his wife Kausarbi (couple pictured above) were allegedly shot dead in police custody in November 2005.
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