Court defers transfer of Sohrab case

Ahmedabad, Jun 21: On Monday, Jun 21, a special CBI magisterial court prorogued the transfer of 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case to trial court following a request made by the central agency to the effect.

A Y Dave, an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate passed the order after CBI lodged an application before him requesting the court not to commit the fake encounter case to trial court.

The accused in the Sohrab case includes former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, suspended IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan, Dinesh M N, Abhay Chudasama and others.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a well-known criminal and an alleged terrorist was killed by the Gujarat Police on 26 November 2005. But later it was revealed that the killing was orchestrated by senior police officers of the Gujarat Police Service, and was allegedly ordered by Gujarat's home minister Amit Shah. Shah, a senior politician in the Bharatiya Janata Party was allegedly involved in a large extortion racket. The state Criminal Investigation Department revealed the fake encounter and several top police officers were arrested.

The CBI in its application, requested for the case trial to be conducted outside Gujarat and a petition in this regard was pending with the Apex Court.

Also, one more appeal against the anticipatory bail granted to two accused Ajay Patel and Yashpal Chudasama was pending with the Supreme Court.

The CBI has prayed that unless these two applications were cleared by the SC, the case should not be transferred to trial court.

OneIndia News