Caravan News
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected a revision application filed by two cops from Rajasthan who are among accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case of 2005 and are facing trial in a trial court.
The discharge plea of Himanshu Singh Rajawat and Shyam Singh Charan, sub-inspectors of Rajasthan police, were earlier rejected by the trial court in July last year.
Several top police officers of Gujarat, besides current BJP president Amit Shah, were accused and sent to jail in the encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati. While Shaikh and his wife were killed in December 2005, Prajpati was killed a year later.
While rejecting the discharge plea of the two, Justice AM Badar noted that after rejecting the discharge applications, the trial court has already framed charges against the accused and examined 125 witnesses so far.
“It is well settled that revisional jurisdiction is required to be exercised sparingly and that too in exceptional cases, when there is some glaring defect of the procedure or there is a manifest error on a point of law which has consequently resulted in a flagrant miscarriage of justice. In the case in hand, the charge has already been framed and explained to the revision petitioners/accused persons. Prosecution witnesses, 125 in number are already examined by the prosecution and they are cross¬examined by the revision petitioners/accused persons. Procedure for trial of sessions triable case is prescribed in Chapter XVIII of the Criminal Procedure Code,” Justice Badar said.
Justice Badar further noted that once charges are framed by the court, there can be no question of discharge.
In the encounter case, Gujarat IPS officers D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N and Rajkumar and Rajasthan Police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod have already discharged by trial court.
Amit Shah was also discharged by the trial court in December 2014.
The CBI, which had probed the case under the watch of CBI and charge-sheeted the accused, has not challenged Shah’s discharge. However, the agency, through its revision applications, has challenged the discharge of former Gujarat IPS officer N K Amin, and Rajasthan Police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod.
Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin has also challenged the discharge of IPS officers D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N and Rajkumar Pandian in the case.
The two separate petitions challenging the IPS officers are pending before the Bombay High Court.
