Failure of Indian justice system in Sohrabuddin case
In November 2005 Sohrabuddin Shaikh was travelling in a Sangli-bound bus from Hyderabad, India along with his wife Kausarbi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati. A police team chased the bus and forced the three to alight and eventually took them to Ahmedabad where Shaikh was killed. Kausarbi, who was a witness to the incident, was also killed but the investigators were never able to trace her remains. Prajapati was also killed in 2006.
Of the 38 accused in the case initially named by the CBI, the CBI court framed charges including murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence against 22 persons with the High Court having stayed the framing of charges against IPS officer Vipul Aggarwal.
Besides the trial in the CBI court, the Sohrabuddin case is the subject of cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court, too. Three revision applications filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin challenging the discharge of Vanzara, Dinesh and Pandiyan are before the Bombay High Court. Also before the High Court are two revision applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan Police’s Dalpatsingh Rathod and Amin. There is also Aggarwal’s petition. The Supreme Court is hearing five petitions seeking an independent inquiry into the death of judge Loya.
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.
Before his elevation to the Bombay High Court, Justice Thipsay served as a judge of the City Civil and Sessions Court and presided over the Vadodara Best Bakery retrial, a case also transferred to Mumbai from Gujarat. In February 2006, he convicted nine and acquitted eight accused in the case. Fourteen people were killed when a mob set fire to Best Bakery on the outskirts of Vadodara on March 1, 2002, during the Gujarat riots.
To read his interview click here.
Of the 38 accused in the case initially named by the CBI, the CBI court framed charges including murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence against 22 persons with the High Court having stayed the framing of charges against IPS officer Vipul Aggarwal.
Besides the trial in the CBI court, the Sohrabuddin case is the subject of cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court, too. Three revision applications filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin challenging the discharge of Vanzara, Dinesh and Pandiyan are before the Bombay High Court. Also before the High Court are two revision applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan Police’s Dalpatsingh Rathod and Amin. There is also Aggarwal’s petition. The Supreme Court is hearing five petitions seeking an independent inquiry into the death of judge Loya.
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.
Before his elevation to the Bombay High Court, Justice Thipsay served as a judge of the City Civil and Sessions Court and presided over the Vadodara Best Bakery retrial, a case also transferred to Mumbai from Gujarat. In February 2006, he convicted nine and acquitted eight accused in the case. Fourteen people were killed when a mob set fire to Best Bakery on the outskirts of Vadodara on March 1, 2002, during the Gujarat riots.
To read his interview click here.
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