Three Gujarat police officers, heldfor their complicity in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and subsequent killing of his wife Kausarbi, on Monday appealed to the Bombay high court for bail.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai on Friday granted anticipatory bail to former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria and three others who were charge sheeted in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case accused N K Amin, who is willing to become an approver, told a special Central Bureau of Investigation court that his statement before the chief magistrate was given as that of a witness and it was not a confession.
In a boost to the Central Bureau of Investigation, N K Amin, an accused police officer in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, on Monday filed an application in a lower court to become an approver. He has also sought pardon in the case. The officer filed the application under Section 306 of the CrPC for being considered as an approver and for grant of pardon in the 2007 case. Amin filed another application seeking transfer from the prison.
Indian Police Services officer Geetha Johri, who headed the Gujarat Crime Investigation Department probe into the 2005 fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and killing of his wife Kausar Bi, was on Thursday questioned for over eight hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to reply to allegations of former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah that he has been falsely implicated by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case for 'political reasons'.
Senior advocate K T S Tulsi will appear for the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, in which former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah is an accused and is being represented by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Rs 10 lakh as interim ex-gratia to the family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was killed by Gujarat police in a fake encounter in 2005.A bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam posted the matter for September 2 when it will decide the issue of referring the case for further probe to the Special Investigating Team headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan. The Gujarat government has opposed the idea
The chief investigating officer told the court that he had not found any material evidence to show who the political beneficiaries were.
Raising security issues, the defence lawyers referred to a media report on the death of a judge who had dealt with the case and said "misreporting has already caused prejudice to both sides". They said it was a "sensational" case and some untoward incident could happen if publication of reports was allowed.
The intriguing Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case now involves two former home ministers of two states, the state police of Gujarat and Rajasthan and casts an ominous shadow on the Narendra Modi government. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah and other accused in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case on the plea of Central Bureau of Investigation seeking transfer of certain documents from Gujarat to a Maharashtra court.
Former IPS officer D G Vanzara, who was accused in the alleged fake encounters of Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh and was later discharged in both the cases, has been given post-retirement promotion as the inspector general of police (IGP) by the Gujarat government, six years after he retired from service. As per the notification issued by the state home department, a copy of which Vanzara tweeted on Tuesday night, he has been promoted as the IGP with effect from September 29, 2007. Additional secretary to the state home department, Nikhil Bhatt, on Wednesday confirmed that his department has issued a notification about Vanzara's promotion.
The apex court had on August 1 upheld the clean chit given by the high court and the trial court to the BJP president in the encounter case and rejected the plea for its revival.
The Supreme Court on Monday modified its order and exempted Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary and Gujarat Member of Legislative Assembly Amit Shah from appearing on alternate Saturdays before the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.
As another Indian Penal Service officer lands behind bars in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, killing of the key witness in the episode is now set to haunt the Gujarat police.Tulsi Prajapati, Sheikh's friend and a witness in the encounter case, was gunned down in 2006."Eventually, it will have to be admitted that it was also a fake encounter," a senior official said.
A Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai on Tuesday discharged Gujarat's former police chief P C Pande in the fake encounter killing case of Tulsiram Prajapati, an aide of slain gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, for want of mandatory sanction from the state government for his prosecution.
"We have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers, but we see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The review petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the bench said.
While the Centre and Sohrabuddin's brother Rubbabuddin Sheikh had sought a CBI probe, the Gujarat government has strongly opposed the same.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition challenging the discharge of Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah is an influential person, and if granted bail, could prove dangerous for investigation in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, said Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin through his lawyer before a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad on Friday.
The chronology of events leading to the Supreme Court verdict.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday used Union minister Mamata Banerjee's statement, questioning the encounter of Maoist leader Azad, to draw parallels with the Sohrabuddin case and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the Naxal's death as well.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned two retired Indian Police Service officers, who had at one point of time headed the probe into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as chiefs of state Central Investigation Department, and questioned one of them.
The special Central Bureau of Investigation judge hearing the case of fake encounter cases of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajaptai, was on Wednesday transferred, following which the court adjourned the hearing on the Amit Shah's discharge plea.
The aim behind the arrest of former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case was to target Chief Minister Narendra Modi, his counsel Ram Jethmalani said in an Ahmedabad court.
Sheela Bhatt lifts the lid off a Gujarat government scheme, piloted by Law Minister Amit Shah, currently in the dock over the Sohrabuddin encounter, to offer prime plots cheap to judges
The Central Bureau of Investigation's probe has revealed that Sohrabuddin Sheikh's wife Kausarbi was killed in a farmhouse on outskirts of Gandhinagar, her body was burnt and ashes were thrown in Narmada river near Bharuch.
Gujarat's junior Home Minister Amit Shah, who is close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday did not show up before Central Bureau of Investigation for questioning in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case but said he will appear on Friday after the agency sent a second summon during the day.
Sources said the CBI had access to phone records showing a number of calls made by Shah to Vanzara and Pandian during the time of the encounter on November 26, 2005, and after Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin filed a petition in September 2006 on the disappearance of Kauser Bi.
Johri met Balwinder Singh for about 15 minutes. She also met Trivedi for over two hours. When mediapersons waiting at Trivedi's office literally mobbed her, she left the venue without answering their queries.
While that created a stir so did the decision on his penultimate day at work with the Supreme Court rechristening its summer vacation "partial court working days", an issue that has led to criticism that the apex court judges enjoyed long breaks.
The CBI on Wednesday opposed the bail plea of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case saying that security of witnesses in the case would be threatened if the former Gujarat minister is released.
According to sources in the BJP, raking up the Soharbuddin case is just a "trailer" in the election-eve madness
The Gujarat CID on Monday filed a chargesheet against 13 police officials, including DIG D G Vanzara, before the metropolitan court in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
It may be recalled that Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi and another person had boarded a private bus from Hyderabad in November 2005 when they were forcibly off-loaded from the bus by a team of the Gujarat police.
Dayal, a senior reporter with the Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar, who broke the story first in November 2006.
Vanzara, a former "encounter specialist", was acquitted in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati and discharged in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.
The Narendra Modi government in Gujarat suffered a setback on Tuesday, with the Supreme Court directing a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the 2005 Soharabuddin Sheikh encounter case. A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam in its verdict accepted the demand for the probe on the plea of the brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter by the Gujarat Police.
The CID has detained certain policemen of the ranks of Inspector, Sub-inspector and Constable, who were members of the team that tracked Sohrabuddin all the way from Hyderabad and then were part of the encounter near Ahmedabad.