India’s Supreme Court agrees to examine appeal over encounter-case acquittals

India’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal challenging the acquittal of 22 people accused in the alleged 2005 fake-encounter deaths of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their associate Tulsiram Prajapati. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant issued notices on a special leave petition filed by Rubabuddin Shaikh, Sohrabuddin’s brother. The appeal challenges a May 7 judgment by a Bombay High Court Division Bench that upheld the acquittals.

The accused include 21 police officials from Gujarat, Rajasthan and undivided Andhra Pradesh, as well as one civilian. The Supreme Court Bench orally noted that 92 of the 210 witnesses had turned hostile during the trial, withdrawing statements that had supported the prosecution’s allegation of a conspiracy involving police officers and politicians. The case began in November 2005, when Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were intercepted while travelling to Hyderabad.

Prajapati was accompanying them. The prosecution alleged that Sohrabuddin was taken into custody by Gujarat and Rajasthan police officers and killed near Ahmedabad on November 26, with police initially describing the death as an encounter. The prosecution further alleged that Kausar Bi was killed hours later and that her body was burned and disposed of.

Prajapati, described as a witness to the alleged abduction, was killed in another encounter near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006. After public protests and demands from the family, the Supreme Court transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010 and moved the trial from Gujarat to Mumbai. The proceedings involved several senior police officers.

Amit Shah, Gujarat’s state home minister at the time, was discharged in 2014 for lack of evidence. The Supreme Court separately refused to entertain an application seeking to reopen the High Court’s findings concerning Shah, describing it as an attempt to revisit issues that had become final. The application was filed by Mumbai resident Maniar Kalpesh Kumar.

The High Court said an acquittal could not be overturned merely because another view was possible. It found that the prosecution had not established either a motive to stage a fake encounter or that the victims had been abducted by the police. The Supreme Court has allowed Rubabuddin to submit translated copies of relevant documents as the appeal proceeds.