The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of 22 persons, including 21 police officers, in the alleged staged “encounter” killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati, and the alleged murder of Sheikh’s wife Kauser Bi in Gujarat, Bar and Bench reported.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was a wanted criminal, was killed by the Gujarat Police in November 2005 in an “encounter” which is alleged to have been staged. He and his wife were travelling by bus from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra when they were stopped by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police, allegedly abducted and shot dead near Gandhinagar.

A sub-inspector also allegedly raped Kauser Bi before murdering her. Prajapati was the sole witness to the murders. He was in police custody after the incident but was shot dead in another “encounter” in December 2006, when the police claimed he was trying to escape.

In December 2018, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court acquitted all persons accused in the matter. In its judgement the court had held that the prosecution had failed to prove a conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah, who is now the Union home minister, was among the persons acquitted earlier in the case. Out of 210 witnesses examined during the trial, 92 were declared hostile.

In April 2019,...

Read more