September 10, 2018:
On Monday, Bombay High Court upheld the discharge granted by Trial Court to ex-Gujarat ATS chief D G Vanzara and four others (all of them police officers from Gujarat and Rajasthan )in the encounter case of Suspected Gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife (Kausar Bi) and helper (Tulsiram Prajapati).High Court held that the applications that challenge their discharge were 'Devoid of Merit'.
Discharge has also been granted to Gujarat Police Officer Vipul Aggarwal, who is a co-accused.
The discharge petition was earlier rejected by the Trial Court thus Aggarwal had approached the High Court to seek discharge on grounds of parity with Vanzara.
Justice Badar had daily hearings in a detailed way for about 2 Weeks in July on all five revision petitions that challenges the discharge of these Officers along with the plea filed by Aggarwal.
Relief has been granted to former IPS Officers Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and N K Aminof the Gujarat police, and Dinesh M N and Dalpat Singh Rathod of the Rajasthan Police.
Sohrabuddin Shaikh's brother Rubabuddin had challenged the discharge granted in the case by the Trial Court. The remaining two revision petitions were filed by the CBI that challenges the discharge granted to Amin and Rathod.
CBI had held these Officials, along with 33 other people as 'Accused' in the "Fake" encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kausar Bi (November 2005) and Prajapati (December 2006).
The case was shifted to a special court in Mumbai Court from Gujarat following a Supreme Court order during August 2016 and September 2017. The court discharged 15 of these 38 accused.
The discharged includes 14 Police Officials and BJP President Amit Shah.
Source: PTI
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