Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter: Special CBI court verdict on December 21

Mumbai, Dec 7: The Special CBI court in Mumbai has reserved orders in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases.

Special court judge, S J Sharma began hearing final arguments on Monday. In all 210 witnesses were examined in the case. Once the final arguments were completed, orders were reserved. Although no date has been given, the verdict is expected to be out by the end of this year. Sharma is set to retire this month. The verdict will be out on December 21.

The CBI contended in court that the entire trial had been hampered by hostile witnesses. The agency also said that it had taken over the probe in 2010 from the Gujarat CID and most of the evidence that was placed on record was a result of the probe conducted by the CBI.

Deposition of witnesses took place after 12 years, many of the witnesses stated that they could not remember the details and our star witnesses turned hostile. Thus, the entire chain of evidence has gone wrong and as a result we could not bring direct evidence, the CBI also submitted.

The CBI chargesheet said that BJP president Amit Shah and then home minister of Rajasthan, Gulab Chand Kataria were part of a nexus of politicians and criminals. There were 38 accused in all, but 16 including Shah were discharged in the case.