Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s brother Rubabuddin on Thursday filed an appeal at the Bombay High Court challenging the acquittal of 22 accused in the killing of his brother, his sister-in-law Kauser Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapti in 2005.
On December 21, 2018, the special Central Bureau of Investigation court acquitted all of them by saying, “the way in which the evidence was brought before me I could not help. The prosecution could not prove a conspiracy, it could not prove it beyond reasonable doubt despite investigations being conducted by various agencies.”
While delivering his last judgment before retiring, Judge SJ Sharma said, “the alleged offence was committed by the accused persons in discharge of their official duty and under the colour of office, even if it is assumed that the accused persons acted in excess of their official duty, then also they are entitled to claim protection of section 197 (prosecution of judges and public servants) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).”
Those accused and acquitted are Mukesh Parmar, then Deputy Superitendent of Police, ATS, Gujarat, Naransinh Dabhi, then Police Inspector, ATS, Balkrishnan Chaubey, then Police Sub-Inspector, ATS, Ahmedabad Abdul Rehman, then Inspector of Police,Udaipur, Himanshu Rajawat, then Police Sub Inspector, Udaipur, Shyamsingh Charan, then Police Sub-Inspector, Udaipur, Ajaykumar Parmar, then Police Constable, ATS, Santram Sharma, then Police Constable, ATS, Naresh Chauhan, then Sub-Inspector of Police, ATS, Vijay Kumar Rathod, then Police Constable, ATS, Rajendrakumar Jirawla, owner of Arham Farm where Kausar Bi was allegedly killed, Ghattamaneni S. Rao, sub-inspector with Andhra Pradesh police, Ashish Pandya, then sub-inspector with Gujarat police, Ramanbhai Patel, was the investigating officer.