Sohrabuddin case: Retired Bombay High Court Judge Abhay M Thipsay said the HC must exercise its powers of revision, even suo-motu if necessary, to relook at the case. (Express Photo/Pradip Das)

The way several high-profile accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case were discharged, the “absurd” inconsistencies in the legal process, signs of witnesses under pressure or threat, evidence of “mischief” — all point to the “failure of justice and of the justice delivery system”.

These are among the series of observations made by Justice Abhay M Thipsay, a former judge of the Bombay High Court who ruled on four bail applications in the case, in an interview to The Indian Express. Speaking out for the first time on the case since he retired last year as judge of the Allahabad High Court in March 2017, Justice Thipsay said the Bombay High Court must exercise its powers of revision, even suo-motu if necessary, to relook at the case.
 

Describing as “absurd” the inconsistencies he found in orders passed by the special CBI court currently hearing the case in Mumbai, Thipsay said the court believed there was an abduction and a staged encounter but still discharged senior police officers. Several aspects of the case raise suspicion, he said, and are “contrary to common sense.” 

Read the full Indian Express report.

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I was so happy, Amma!
Soon I would take
my first breath of air,
I would feel
my own pangs of hunger,
I would see
my own share of sunshine.

I was so happy, Amma!
I had seen the silhouette
of Abbu’s palm on your belly;
I wanted to see his face,
I wanted to see Abbu for myself,
I wanted to see my share of the world.

I was so happy, Amma!
Then one day
I was frightened… slithering like a fish…
in the waters of your womb;
What was this unfamiliar shadow over the water…
I sensed you crawling,
not walking;
It was hurting me, Amma!
I don’t know what happened next;
From the soft and cosy darkness of your womb

I landed
in harsh sunlight
and then…
a raging fire.

That was a very major operation, Amma!

I saw
with eyes
that never opened
big, big doctors bent over you, Amma,
three-pronged surgeon’s knives
in their hands…
They let out a shriek when they saw me!
Why did they shriek, Amma…
Were they overjoyed to see me?

The moment I was out,
they gave me fiery toys, Amma!
And then I was so lost in play,
I didn’t even look at you…
But you must have sung me a childbirth song
with your last breath, Amma!

I was never born, Amma!
Nor did I ever die;
Like an unborn child in hospital,
stored in coloured water,
I became immortal, Amma!
But there is no coloured water here,
only a searing fire!
How long must I keep burning… Amma!

(Kauser Bano from Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad was attacked by a mob on February 28, 2002. She was pregnant at the time. The murderers slit her stomach and flung her foetus into the fire. In this poem, the foetus is imagined to be an unborn girl to signify another dimension of sexual assault.)

(From Dakshin Tola, a collection of poems by Anshu Malviya. Translated from the Hindi by Javed Anand.)

Archive from Communalism Combat February-March 2012 issue

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