Sohrabuddin fake encounter case: After PC Pande, CBI court drops charges against Geeta Johri

Mumbai, Mar 2: Days after former Gujarat police chief PC Pandey was discharged in connection with Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, a special CBI court on Monday dropped charges against Gujarat Additional Director-General of Police Geeta Johri.

Charges against Johri were dropped for want of mandatory sanction from Maharashtra government for her prosecution.

"Prosecution against Johri stands dropped for want of sanction", observed special CBI judge MB Gosavi.

The court has discharged BJP president Amit Shah, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni and PC Pandey till now from the case.

According to the CBI, Johri was booked for delaying the investigations in the Prajapati case and also allegedly destroyed some case records.

"We had moved discharge application saying that mandatory sanction from the government was not obtained and hence she cannot be prosecuted," her lawyer Sachin Pawar said.

Sohrabuddin, a gangster who the Gujarat police claimed had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his wife Kausarbi, were allegedly abducted by state's Anti-Terror Squad when they were on way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra.

Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005 after which his wife disappeared and was believed to have been done to death.

Tulsiram, an aide of the gangster and an eyewitness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district in Gujarat in December 2006.

The Sohrabuddin killing case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 at CBI's request for fair trial.

In 2013, the Supreme Court had clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati's encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin.

(With inputs from PTI)