Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter: Police officers DG Vanzara, MN Dinesh discharged by CBI court
A special court in Mumbai is hearing the case after the Supreme Court ordered for the trial to be transferred out of Gujarat. The discharge plea of some of the accused is still pending, after which the trial will begin in the case.
A CBI court on Tuesday, August 1, discharged controversial police officer DG Vanzara and MN Dinesh in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Vanzara, now retired, was the then Gujarat ATS chief. Dinesh, an IPS officer, was with the Rajasthan Police. The total number of accused discharged by the court now stands at 15. Vanzara, considered close to the coterie of then chief minister, Narendra Modi has had a colourful past, especially after his arrest in 2007.
On Monday, July 31, the court rejected the discharge application of two Rajasthan police officers Himanshu Singh and Shyam Singh Charan. The two police sub-inspectors are accused in the case and were then part of the Rajasthan police. Significantly, the CBI had opposed their discharge, submitting before the court that they were among the main accused and that they were accused of firing shots at Sheikh. In december 2015, doing a U-Turn on its own earlier charge sheet, the CBI had filed for discharge of BJP president, Amit Shah, who was also one of the accused in this case.
Also read: CBI U-Turn against its own chargesheet in the Sohrabuddin case, the caged parrot syndrome?
Now, a special court in Mumbai is hearing the case after the Supreme Court ordered for the trial to be transferred out of Gujarat. The discharge plea of some of the accused is still pending, after which the trial will begin in the case. A total of 38 persons were named as accused in the case initially.
In November 2005, Sheikh, along with his wife Kausarbi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati, was travelling in a Sangli-bound bus from Hyderabad. A police team chased the bus and forced the three to alight and took them to Ahmedabad, where they were eventually killed. The CID had alleged that it was made to appear that Sheikh was escaping, while he was shot at by cops.
DG Vanzara, had in 2013 written a sensational ten page open letter to Amit Shah and Narendra Modi while still in jail. Top cop of the Gujarat Police, DG Vanzara, who was then an accused in fake encounter cases in the state, resigned. In his resignation letter, Mr Vanzara has indicted former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, a key aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He has also slammed Mr Modi.
Read: Jailed top cop Vanzara’s letter, in which he slams Narendra Modi, Amit Shah
Background:
In December, 2005 Rubabuddin Shaikh wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India complaining about the killing of his brother Sohrabuddin and the disappearance of his sister in law Kauser Bi at the hands of the Gujarat Police, the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Rajasthan Police. The Court forwarded the letter to the Director General of Police for an enquiry. During the pendency of the enquiry Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to the abduction of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi was, also killed in an encounter (extra-judicial killing). Rubabuddin approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation. That is how the court monitored investigations into this extra judicial killing.
The Supreme Court first asked the Gujarat Police to investigate the matter. Certain police officers (prominently, Vanzara), were arrested. Charge sheets were filed and eight Action Taken Reports were produced before the Supreme Court by the State of Gujarat. Unsatisfied, the Supreme Court in 2010 came to the following conclusion:
“From the above factual discrepancies appearing in the 8 Action Taken Reports and from the Charge Sheet we therefore feel that the Police Authorities of the State of Gujarat had failed to carry out fair and impartial investigation as we initially wanted them to do.” The Supreme Court directed the CBI to carry out the investigation including on the issue of a larger conspiracy. The CBI started investigating the case and, on the basis of call records of the police officials and other evidence, submitted a chargesheet on 23.7.2010 in which Amit Shah was named as a co-conspirator. The chargesheet states that Amit Shah was the lynchpin in the conspiracy. Amit Shah was arrested. On 29.10.2010 Amit Shah was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court, The CBI appealed to the Supreme Court against this order. The bail was not cancelled but Amit Shah was asked to not enter Gujarat.
In its charge sheet, the CBI claimed that Amit Shah presided over an extortion racket and that it was under his pressure and at his behest that the Gujarat police tried to cover up his involvement in the killings. Phone records of the police officials at the time of killings of Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Tulsi Prajapati were used to show that these police officers were in constant touch with Amit Shah. The trial was transferred to Mumbai. Subsequently, Amit Shah filed a Discharge Application in the Sessions Court at Mumbai.
This story in the Outlook traces the queer route that the case took once the Modi regime swept to power in Delhi in May 2014.
The Amit Shah Files :Even before the trial is concluded, a CBI court finds reason to discharge a powerful man
The entire trajectory of the Sohrabuddin case may be read here:
Sohrabuddin Case File