In this article, we will retrace Sohrabuddin Fake Encounter Case 2005. We will also discuss the controversies born in the Sohrabuddin case and what will be the impact in the coming time. This article is framed on the basis of a charge sheet submitted by CBI and reports published by several media houses.
Sohrabuddin Case
In 2012, Supreme Court ordered an investigation into 22 extra judicial killings that took place between 2003 & 2006. One of these cases was in the headlines, whose name was Sohrabuddin Sheikh Encounter Case or Sohrabuddin Case. Because of this in 2010, the Minister of State of Gujarat Mr Amit Shah also arrested and had to resign. Later, CBI Court gave a clean chit to Amit Shah in 2014 in the Sohrabuddin case.
Moreover, the mysterious death of CBI Court Judge Brijgopal Harikishan Loya occurred during the trials of the Sohrabuddin Case. Due to this, 4 judges of the supreme court were also put up against the public revolt of justice Dipak Mishra. Many said justice Loya was offered a bribe of 100 crores for giving a favourable verdict and was killed on his refusal. As per revolting judges, justice Dipak Mishra was assigning selectively instead of established procedures to the cases that came to the supreme court.
Overview of the Sohrabuddin Case
On 23rd November 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh with his wife Kausar Bi & associate Tulsiram Prajapati were on the way from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad. Around 1:30 a.m. At night Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad(ATS) stops that bus in Sangli, Maharashtra and takes the custody of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, & Tulsiram Prajapati.
Moreover, Kausar Bi opposed this action, due to which ATS had to take her along with them. 3 Days later, on 26 November 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh is shot by Gujarat Deputy Inspector general of police DG Vanzara. He explains it as an encounter. But the Gujarat Police’s narrative was different.
According to them, Sohrabuddin Sheikh was operating from the Narol area of ​​Ahmedabad, when a police team saw him going on a motorcycle he didn’t stop when the police stopped and started firing at the chasing police. Further, Sohrabuddin Shaikh gets shot during police self-defence and dies on the spot. Moreover, he got 8 bullets during this encounter. According to DG Vanzara, Sohrabuddin was a Sharpshooter and was planning to assassinate a top politician in Gujarat. Moreover, ATS got intelligence from the Rajasthan Police which was also a part of this encounter.
Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?
The first narrative describes him as an independent Extortionist-Murderer. The second narrative describes him as a terrorist close to Dawood Ibrahim. Moreover, the third narrative described Sohrabuddin Sheikh as a criminal working for some corrupt policeman.
There are different narratives regarding Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s identity. He is linked with the 1993 Mumbai blasts carried by Dawood Ibrahim. According to Vanzara, Sohrabuddin had close connections with Let(Lashkar-e-Taiba) and ISI(Inter-Services Intelligence). As per the CBI charge sheet and other witnesses, Sohrabuddin was working for a corrupt IPS officer of Gujarat Abhay Chudasama.
How was Encounter Exposed as Fake?
At the request of Sohrabuddin’s brother, the Gujarat Court ordered an investigation of Sohrabuddin and the disappearance of Kausar Bi. The preliminary report by IG Geeta Johri of CID, mention the Secret involvement of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case. Moreover, also mention, that Amit Shah is influencing the Intelligence Agency.
Further, according to senior journalist Prashant Dayal, the Sohrabuddin encounter was fake. He posted the news of this Fake Encounter on Divya Bhaskar Newspaper in Nov 2006. After this news, the Supreme Court and the general public started understanding this case.
Investigation of the Sohrabuddin Case
Due to the report submitted by Geeta Johri of Gujarat CID, two important developments occurred in this case. Firstly, after this report, the State Government had to admit to the Supreme Court that the encounters were fake and secondly, based on this report, in 2007, 3 IPS officers were arrested named DG Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh Kumar. All three were arrested by DIG Rajnish Rai of Gujarat.
Also read:- Batla House Encounter Case
What Happen to Kauser Bi?
At first, it was told that Kausar Bi is missing, but later it is found that Kausar Bi was also murdered. Her body was burnt on 28 Nov 2005. Many reports also say that Kauser Bi was also rapped by Sub Inspector before the murder. In the statement given to the CBI, therefore, the ATS police station officer Ravindra Makwana was on duty on the day of the encounter and testifies to rape.
As per Ravindra Makwana, Balkrishna Choubey, Sub Inspector of Gujarat state, was given the responsibility of guarding Kauser Bi who raped her. Moreover, Human rights lawyer, Mukul Sinha, collects the events based on the statement of the witnesses given to the CBI from the truth of Gujarat medium, telling that Kauser Bi’s last journey was the most brutal.
Kauser Bi was taken to the ATS office in Shahibaug where DG Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian offer her money to keep quiet but Kauser Bi refuses. In this office, Kausar was given drugs and murdered.
This was all about Sohrabuddin Case.
