The Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case was a
criminal case
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...
in the
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
state after the death of Sohrabuddin Anwarhussain Sheikh on November 26, 2005. A special CBI court acquitted all the 22 accused in the case in the alleged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife.
Apart from being involved in the criminal
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
racket in Gujarat, Sheikh was also involved in arms smuggling in
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
, and also had murder cases registered against him in Gujarat and
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
.
Sheikh was also claimed by the police to be associated with the banned global terrorist organization
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT; ur, ; literally ''Army of the Good'', translated as ''Army of the Righteous'', or ''Army of the Pure'' and alternatively spelled as ''Lashkar-e-Tayyiba'', ''Lashkar-e-Toiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Taiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Tayyeba'') ...
and the
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
i intelligence agency
Inter-Services Intelligence, and was alleged to have planned to create communal chaos in the state by assassinating "an important political leader".
Although the target of Sheikh's plans has never been officially revealed, the impression was given to political effect that it was to have been Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
. Sheikh's wife Kauser Bi also disappeared on the same day as his killing. A year later, on December 26, 2006, Sheikh's associate Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to Sheikh's killing, was also killed in another police encounter shooting.[
Sheikh was alleged by the police to be extorting protection money from local marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan.][ He was also claimed to have links to fellow underworld criminals Sharifkhan Pathan, Abdul Latif, Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, who were all members and associates of India's largest organized crime network and underworld mafia operated by ]Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim (; born 26 December 1955) is an Indian mafia gangster, drug kingpin, and wanted terrorist from Dongri, Mumbai. He reportedly heads the Indian organised crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. Ibrahim i ...
.[ During investigations before he was arrested, the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat police claimed to have found 40 AK-47 assault rifles from his residence Village Jhirniya, District Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.]
Facts of case
Involved persons
Accused non-governmental criminals and their associates include Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, Tulsiram Prajapati, and Sylvester Daniel Sylvester Daniel is a person known for having a criminal history and being a key witness in the cases for the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati killing.
Early life
Daniel's parents both had careers in healthcare. They lived in Raja ...
.
Accused police and officials include Vipul Aggarwal
Vipul Aggarwal is a 2001 batch Indian Police Service Officer from the Gujarat Cadre. He served as the Deputy CEO of the National Health Authority, a government agency responsible for implementing healthcare schemes in India, from February 2020 t ...
, Abhay Chudasma, Geetha Johri
Geetha Johri is a retired officer of the Indian Police Service. She was the first woman from Gujarat to become an IPS officer. Johri retired as Gujarat’s police chief and was the highest ranked women officer in the state. She became DIG in 2017, ...
, Dinesh MN
Munganahalli Narayanaswamy Dinesh is an Indian Police Service officer from Karnataka who currently serving as Additional Director General of Police - Crime (ADG CRIME) .
Dinesh is a 1995 batch Indian Police Service officer of the Rajasthan Cadr ...
, Rajkumar Pandian
Rajkumar Pandian (RK Pandian) is an Indian Police Service officer. He came to attention over claims in the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. From 2016 he was Inspector-general of police in Junagadh, even while the Sohrabuddin case was in courts. In 2018 ...
, P.P. Pandey, Ashish Pandya
Ashish Pandya is a Dy.SP in the Indian Police Service, in the state of Gujarat. He came to prominence in the media as the leader of the police force accused of a encounter in the Tulsiram Prajapati killing.
Pandya had fired the bullet which k ...
, Amit Shah
Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
, Himanshu Singh Rajawat
Himanshu is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Himanshu Asnora (born 1995), Indian cricketer
* Himanshu Bhatt actor who plays Mrityunjay Viswa karma in the film ''Login''
* Himanshu Bisht (born 1996), Indian cricketer
* Himanshu ...
and D. G. Vanzara
Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as D. G. Vanzara, is the former Inspector-General of Police (IG) from Gujarat, India. He was in judicial custody from 2007 until his bail in 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial k ...
.
Judges, lawyers, and prosecutors involved in the case include JT Utpat, BH Loya
Brijgopal Harkishan Loya (1966–2014) was an Indian judge who served in a special court which deals with matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, and died on 1 Dece ...
, MB Gosavi, and Shrikant Khandalkar Shrikant Khandalkar was a lawyer known for filing public interest litigation in India. He died Sunday 29 November 2015.
On Sunday 29 November 2015 Khandalkar was found dead. Police determined that the death was a suicide. His body was injured after ...
.
Witnesses for the prosecution include Rajnish Rai
Rajnish Rai was a Deputy inspector general of police for the Indian Police Service. He began service after graduating with the 1992 cadre. In 2019 he joined the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as an assistant professor.
Rai is known for ...
.
In addition to the various cases directly connected to the death of Sohrabuddin and his wife, other related cases include the Tulsiram Prajapati killing
Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. The case is widely believed to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of havin ...
, the Ishrat Jahan case
The Ishrat Jahan case is an ongoing case where officers of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch and members of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Ahmedabad are accused of fatally shooting four people unlawfully on 15 June 2004 in an " enc ...
, the murder of Haren Pandya
Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of Gujarat in India. He was allegedly murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car (the place of his murder is contentious), after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in Ahmedabad.
...
, and the Popular Builders firing case.
Timeline
On 23–24 November 2005 Gujarati police deputy inspector general D. G. Vanzara
Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as D. G. Vanzara, is the former Inspector-General of Police (IG) from Gujarat, India. He was in judicial custody from 2007 until his bail in 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial k ...
took custody of history-sheeter
In Indian English, a history-sheeter (sometimes referred to as a rowdy-sheeter ) is a person with a long criminal record. Known as a career criminal outside of South Asia, the term is found in newspapers of South Asian countries such as India and ...
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, and Tulsiram Prajapati as they travelled by bus in Sangli
Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...
, Maharashtra. Vanzara sent Tulsiram to Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
, Gujarat, where the Rajasthani police took custody of him and took him to Udaipur
Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...
, Rajasthan.
On 26 November police shot and killed Sohrabuddin in what they would describe as a police encounter
A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
. On 28–29 November in a village in Ilol someone murdered and cremated Kauser Bi. Some accounts say that someone raped her also. In December Sohrabuddin's brother wrote to the Chief Justice of India
The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...
claiming murder with police involvement. In response, the Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
directed the Criminal Investigation Department in Gujarat to take the case from police and themselves investigate it.
A year later on 26 December 2006 police reported that Tulsiram had escaped from police custody. On 28 December a police encounter led to the Tulsiram Prajapati killing
Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. The case is widely believed to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of havin ...
between the town of Ambaji
Ambaji (''Ambājī'') is a census town in Banaskantha district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is known for its historical connections with sites of cultural heritage.
Geography
Ambaji is a town within taluka district Banaskantha, North ...
and the village of Sarhad Chapri near the border between Gujarat and Rajasthan.
In February 2007 DIG
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock (geology), rock on the surface of Earth. Di ...
Rajnish Rai
Rajnish Rai was a Deputy inspector general of police for the Indian Police Service. He began service after graduating with the 1992 cadre. In 2019 he joined the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as an assistant professor.
Rai is known for ...
submits a report to the CID
CID may refer to:
Film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1955 film), an Indian Malayalam film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1956 film), an Indian Hindi film
* ''C. I. D.'' (1965 film), an Indian Telugu film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1990 film), an Indian Hindi film
Television
* ''CID'' ( ...
. In April Rai arrests fellow IPS
IPS, ips, or iPS may refer to:
Science and technology Biology and medicine
* ''Ips'' (genus), a genus of bark beetle
* Induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cells
* Intermittent photic stimulation, a neuroimaging technique
* Intraparietal sulcus, ...
officers Dinesh MN
Munganahalli Narayanaswamy Dinesh is an Indian Police Service officer from Karnataka who currently serving as Additional Director General of Police - Crime (ADG CRIME) .
Dinesh is a 1995 batch Indian Police Service officer of the Rajasthan Cadr ...
, Rajkumar Pandian
Rajkumar Pandian (RK Pandian) is an Indian Police Service officer. He came to attention over claims in the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. From 2016 he was Inspector-general of police in Junagadh, even while the Sohrabuddin case was in courts. In 2018 ...
, and D. G. Vanzara
Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as D. G. Vanzara, is the former Inspector-General of Police (IG) from Gujarat, India. He was in judicial custody from 2007 until his bail in 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial k ...
. Weeks later Rai leaves the case investigation.
Early in 2010 the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
transfers the investigation of the case from the police in Gujarat to the CBI office in Mumbai. In April 2010 CBI arrests DIG
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock (geology), rock on the surface of Earth. Di ...
Abhay Chudasma on charges of criminal collaboration with the deceased Sohrabuddin. Chudasma was the 14th police officer arrested in the case. In July 2010 CBI chargesheet
In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after First Information Reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those FIR(s).
Once the charge sheet has been submitted to a court ...
ed and arrested Amit Shah
Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
, who was then Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...
for the Government of Gujarat.
In April 2011 CBI took control of the investigation into the Tulsiram Prajapati killing
Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. The case is widely believed to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of havin ...
. In 2012 the SC transferred the trial from the Gujarat High Court
The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the ''Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960'' after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State.
The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. The prese ...
to the Bombay High Court
The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...
to promote a more fair trial. In 2013 the SC combined the cases of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi, and Tulsiram.
In May 2014 Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
became Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
, which was related to the case because defendant Amit Shah was his close advisor. The SC had stated that one judge should oversee the entire case. The first judge, J T Utpat, had ordered Amit Shah to appear in court. Judge Utpat left the case for unclear reasons in June 2014 and BH Loya
Brijgopal Harkishan Loya (1966–2014) was an Indian judge who served in a special court which deals with matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, and died on 1 Dece ...
replaced him. Judge Loya also insisted that Shah appear in court. In December 2014 Judge Loya died in strange circumstances claimed newspaper deccan herald Judge MB Gosavi replaced Loya. That month, the court discharged Shah from the case as court found no evidence against Amit Shah and it was simply plotted by then ruling party and misused their power.
In November 2015 Sohrabuddin's brother petitioned the Bombay High Court with a challenge Shah's discharge. Within days, he withdraws his petition. Activist Harsh Mander petitions the court with his own challenge against Shah's discharge first to the Bombay court then the SC, but by the end of 2016 both courts dismissed Mander for lack of standing.
In November 2017 CBI Judge SJ Sharma begins the trial. Of 210 witnesses, 92 withdraw or change their earlier testimony and become hostile
Hostility is seen as form of emotionally charged aggressive behavior. In everyday speech it is more commonly used as a synonym for anger and aggression.
It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a facet of neuroticism in ...
. Also in that month ''The Caravan
''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture.
History
In 1940, Vishwa Nath launched ''Caravan'' as the first magazine from the Delhi Press; it went on to establish its ...
'' publishes a story from Judge Loya's family in which they describe strange and hidden circumstances of his death. In January 2018 Judge Dipak Misra
Justice Dipak Misra (born 3 October 1953) is an Indian jurist who served as the 45th Chief Justice of India from 28 August 2017 till 2 October 2018. He is also former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and Delhi High Court. He is the nephe ...
declares that Loya's death was by natural causes
In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...
.
In September 2018 the court discharges several of the accused including Dinesh, Pandian, and Vanzara. In November the witness examination ends without the defense producing any witnesses. In December the court heard final arguments, and on 21 December the court discharged all 22 accused due to lack of evidence.
Cases against Sohrabuddin Sheikh
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was accused of possessing 40 AK-47 assault rifles that were recovered from his house in Jharania village of Ujjain district in 1995.[ At the time of his killing, he also had more than 60 pending cases against him, ranging from extorting protection money from marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan, to arms smuggling in Madhya Pradesh, to murder cases both in Gujarat and Rajasthan. According to the police, Sheikh was an underworld criminal with links to the Sharifkhan Pathan alias Chhota Dawood and Abdul Latif gangs, and with Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, both known to be close to India's underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim.][ To escape the police, Sheikh fled with his family from Gujarat to the city of ]Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
in the state of Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...
.
Encounter
On November 23, 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh was traveling on a public bus with his wife, Kauser Bi, from Hyderabad to Sangli
Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
. At 01:30 am, the Gujarat police ATS stopped the bus and took them away.[Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?]
. Ndtv.com (2010-07-23). Retrieved 2010-08-29. Kauser wanted to stay with her husband, but was taken to a Disha farmhouse outside Ahmedabad instead.
Three days later, Sheikh was killed in an encounter on a highway at Vishala Circle near Ahmedabad. The report filed in the Supreme Court by the Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...
(CBI) quotes a number of witnesses and builds up a narrative of the killing.[Encounter: how Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed]
Hindustan Times (2007-05-02). Retrieved 2010-08-29.
Exposure and state investigations
The encounter killing was not exposed until a media report made a year later. This report, together with a petition filed in the Supreme Court by Sheikh's brother, led to investigations into the incident. In April 2007, senior state police officers were arrested for their connection to the case.
Media report and Supreme Court petition
The encounter killing was exposed after a few police inspectors boasted about it over drinks with journalist Prashant Dayal Prashant or Prasant is a common male name in South Asia. It is derived from the word "shanth" which means patience, calm, quiet, or tranquil.
People with the given name
* Prashant Bose - Indian politician
* Prashant Bhushan - Indian lawyer, ac ...
. Dayal conducted his own investigations at the farmhouse, and then at Illol, and ascertained that a burqa-clad woman had been cremated there. He then broke the story in November 2006, in the leading Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
newspaper, Divya Bhaskar
''Divya Bhaskar'' () is a Gujarati newspaper in Gujarat, India, owned by D B Corp Ltd. It is one of the highest circulation Gujarati dailies. With the most local editions in Gujarat, it is published from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jam ...
, and gave details of the encounter.
Meanwhile, Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin petitioned the Supreme Court claiming that the Gujarat police had orchestrated the encounter and demanded to be given information on the location of his sister-in-law Kauser. In March 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a time-bound investigation. Inspector-General Geetha Johri
Geetha Johri is a retired officer of the Indian Police Service. She was the first woman from Gujarat to become an IPS officer. Johri retired as Gujarat’s police chief and was the highest ranked women officer in the state. She became DIG in 2017, ...
was given the task of conducting the investigation, and was to report directly to the court. She gathered evidence that implicated the role of several police officers in the encounter. However, it has been claimed that she may have "steered clear of linking them to a political conspiracy". Based on the evidence collected by Johri, DIG Police Rajnish Rai on April 24, 2007, arrested DIG (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, Superintendent of Police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M.N. Dinesh
Munganahalli Narayanaswamy Dinesh is an Indian Police Service officer from Karnataka who currently serving as Additional Director General of Police - Crime (ADG CRIME) .
Dinesh is a 1995 batch Indian Police Service officer of the Rajasthan Cadr ...
of Rajasthan police, who is alleged to have been working at the behest of the marble lobby.[Other States / Rajasthan News : Kataria denies any role in Sohrabuddin case]
. The Hindu. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
The Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government to place before it the inquiry reports prepared by Johri, which had allegedly said that Sheikh was killed in an encounter killing. Johri was removed from the investigation after this report was published. On May 3, 2007, the court asked the government whether Johri had been dismissed from the investigation so that a further probe would not be carried out, and directed it to submit a final report on May 15, the day it will give the final order.
Inspector General's report
In Part B of the report, Johri recorded facts relating to repeated attempts by the accused police officers and Amit Shah to sabotage the Supreme Court mandated enquiry. The report states that Shah "brought to bear pressure" on the enquiry process, with the result that Ms. Johri was directed to suspend the enquiry and the enquiry papers were taken away from her "under the guise of scrutiny." Johri also records that Shah even "directed Shri G.C. Raigar, Additional Director General of Police, CID (Crime & Railways) to provide him with the list of witnesses, both police and private, who are yet to be contacted by CID (Crime) for recording their statement in the said enquiry."[
The government was asked by the court to give the reason for Johri's removal from the case on May 15. Not finding the Gujarat government's explanations satisfactory, the bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyam ruled that Johri would report directly to the Supreme Court. She was reinstated in the same position and also asked to head the case.
]
Allegations of involvement in
Haren Pandya
Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of Gujarat in India. He was allegedly murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car (the place of his murder is contentious), after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in Ahmedabad.
...
murder
The newspaper DNA, citing sources in the Gujarat State Police, reported in August 2011 that Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram may have been "used to kill Haren Pandya
Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of Gujarat in India. He was allegedly murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car (the place of his murder is contentious), after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in Ahmedabad.
...
", the erstwhile BJP leader who was once close to Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
. The murder remains unsolved after 12 people arrested for
it were released in what the high court called a "botched up and blinkered" investigation. According to the DNA report, Sohrabuddin was initially given the task but he back-pedalled and the murder was
eventually executed by Tulsiram. The encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram were a result of unease among the conspirators:
:However, the alleged conspirators at whose behest Pandya was killed began to lose confidence in Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram and, eventually, their equations began to worsen, the source said.[
A similar charge has been made by ex-IPS officer ]Sanjiv Bhatt
Sanjiv Bhatt is a former Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat-cadre. He is known for his role in filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against the then Chief Minister of the Government of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, concerning Mo ...
, who discovered evidence for Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram's involvement and forwarded it to Amit Shah
Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
, who sounded "very disturbed over the telephone" and asked him "not to
speak about it to anyone". Bhatt followed this up with a letter to Shah detailing the "involvement of Sohrabuddin and some policemen in the murder".
Bhatt was subsequently suspended from the Gujarat police.
D.G. Vanzara
Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as D. G. Vanzara, is the former Inspector-General of Police (IG) from Gujarat, India. He was in judicial custody from 2007 until his bail in 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial k ...
, ex-IPS who had originally investigated the Pandya murder, and is currently out on bail after being jailed on charges of coordinating the Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram encounters, told the CBI in Sept 2013 that about the role of Sohrabuddin in Pandya's murder.
CBI enquiry
Despite the detailed nature of the Johri report, the Supreme Court felt impelled, given the allegations of involvement by senior politicians, that the case should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...
for investigation. Since 2007, the Gujarat government had strongly resisted these attempts. The CBI took help of T D Dogra of AIIMS New Delhi and Forensic experts of Central Forensic Science Laboratory New Delhi in Forensic investigations.
Media pressure began building up, with calls from organizations such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. Eventually, on 12 January 2010, the Supreme Court observed that "the facts surrounding Prajapati's death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness".[Supreme Court assigns Sohrabuddin case to CBI]
. Ndtv.com. Retrieved 2010-08-29. The court then directed the CBI to take over the probe.
Subsequently, the CBI arrested senior Gujarat police officer Abhay Chudasama Abhay Chudasama is an officer in the Indian Police Service.He born in ratanpur(GA) village, vallabhipur tehsil in Bhavnagar district. He graduated with the 1999 cadre.
The CBI arrested Chudasama in April 2010 for involvement in the death of Sohra ...
, who was charged with extortion in partnership with Sheikh. After Chudasama's arrest, the CBI also charged the now ex-home minister Shah with collusion.[
Suspicion of political interference intensified after the evidence handed over to the CBI from the state investigations showed that 331 phone calls by Shah to the concerned police officers had been deleted from the records.] After media reports revealed the original records of calls from Shah to Vanzara and other police officers executing the killings, the CBI acquired the original records, and ex-police chief O.P. Mathur, who was then Director of Raksha Shakti University, was indicted for deleting evidence.[ Shah was subsequently named as the "prime accused" in the case.
A CBI witness also claimed that they were paid Rs. 10 crores by R.K. Patni, the owner of RK marbles who was acquainted with ]Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
leaders, to eliminate Sheikh. But BJP MLAs Gulab Chand Kataria
Gulab Chand Kataria (born 13 October 1944) is an Indian politician who is serving as the 29th Governor of Assam since 2023. He was the Home minister in Government of Rajasthan from 2014 till 2018. He is a senior leader of BJP in Rajasthan and i ...
and Om Prakash Mathur
Om Prakash Mathur (born 2 January 1952) is a member of Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan state in India and is a senior politician from Bharatiya Janata Party. Initially, he was groomed by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat but later he became a leader on his ow ...
from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
also got named in the case. Kataria, who visited Gujarat to lobby for the release of Rajasthan police officer Dinesh M.N. in 2007,[ denied all charges. On September 1, IPS Officer D G Vanzara resigned, blaming lack of interest shown by State Government in rescuing him and other police officers jailed in fake encounter cases. Dinesh M. N. was granted bail in May 2014. He had served seven years in jail due to cases.]
The Special Court had discharged Amit Shah
Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
from the case due to lack of evidence in December 2014.
D. G. Vanzara and Dinesh M. N. were acquitted in August 2017 due to lack of evidence.
Reactions
As the case included the high ranking BJP politician Amit Shah
Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
, the opposition party including Rahul Gandhi criticized the case throughout. When the court found no evidence of guilt at the end, Gandhi remarked that somehow various people died from strange circumstances.
In 2007 Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
criticized the police investigation and the practice of encounter killings by police
Encounter killing is a term used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since the late 20th century to describe extrajudicial killings by the police or the armed forces, supposedly in self-defence, when they encounter suspected gangsters or ...
.
A publication advocating for rule of law in India criticized the circumstances of the case for the normalization of extraordinary and gruesome occurrences, and for out of process police investigation, and for unacceptably poor courtroom proceedings.
News sources including ''The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', ''Deccan Herald
''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...
'', and ''The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...
'' described the case as a failure of the justice system.
'' National Herald'' claimed that the court inappropriately issued a gag order to prevent media coverage of the case.
Legal commentators Harsh Mander and Sarim Naved said that the case demonstrated the Indian justice system's lack of capacity to effectively manage large court cases involving high-profile people. Legal blog ''Bar and Bench'' used the case to talk about various challenges in the Indian legal system.
See also
* Tulsiram Prajapati killing
Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. The case is widely believed to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of havin ...
* Encounter killings by police
Encounter killing is a term used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since the late 20th century to describe extrajudicial killings by the police or the armed forces, supposedly in self-defence, when they encounter suspected gangsters or ...
* Ishrat Jahan Ishrat Jahan may refer to:
* Ishrat Jahan (lawyer) – an Indian practising lawyer and former municipal councillor in Delhi
* Ishrat Jahan encounter killing – a killing of four persons, one of whom was named Ishrat Jahan, by police and intelligen ...
* 1982 Gonda Encounter
The 1982 Gonda Encounter is an ongoing criminal case involving the murder of 13 people including the Deputy Superintendent of police in Gonda district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On 5 March 2013 three police personnel were given Capital ...
* Ranbir Singh case
The Ranbir Singh fake encounter case is an ongoing criminal case in the Uttarakhand state of India, took place on 3 July 2009, and involved fake encounter killings of Ranbir Singh, a 22-year-old MBA graduate in Dehradun. Delhi court has convicted ...
References
External links
Dead Man Talking
Tehelka, 3 December 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter
Indian extortionists
Politics of Gujarat
Extrajudicial killings
2005 in India
Human rights abuses in India
Deaths by person in India
Deaths in police custody in India