The Bombay High Court today dismissed the appeals challenging the acquittal of all 22 accused, including 21 police personnel, in the fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kauser Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati..A division bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad upheld the acquittal and dismissed the appeals filed by Shaikh's brothers Rubabuddin and Nayabuddin.The detailed judgment is awaited..The appeals filed by Shaikh’s brothers sought quashing of the trial court's judgment or, in the alternative, prayed for directions for a re-trial under Section 386(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.The appeals had been pending before the Court since 2019 and was reserved for orders in 2025..The brothers filed the appeals in the capacity of 'victims who suffered the loss of family members'. They argued that the trial was fundamentally flawed and conducted in a manner that defeated the ends of justice.They submitted that the special judge based his decision on unwarranted assumptions and manifestly erroneous appreciation of evidence. A primary grievance in the appeal was the prosecution's failure to summon magistrates before whom key hostile witnesses had previously recorded their statements. Prior to approaching the High Court, Rubabuddin had also written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the CBI Director, and the Cabinet Secretary, urging the government to officially challenge the verdict.Meanwhile CBI stated during the High Court hearings that it had accepted the verdict and had not taken a call to challenge it in appeal..The case stemmed from an incident on November 23, 2005, when wanted criminal Sohrabuddin Shaikh was allegedly abducted alongside Kauser Bi and Prajapati from a luxury bus traveling from Hyderabad to Sangli. CBI claimed that Shaikh and Prajapati were later killed in staged encounters by police, while Kauser Bi was murdered and her body secretly disposed of.Current Union minister Amit Shah was also an accused in the case. .The case was registered in Gujarat. However on CBI's request in 2012, it was transferred to Mumbai by the Supreme Court. The trial was presided over by multiple judges including Judge BH Loya who died in 2014 mid-trial and judge MB Gosavi who discharged Shah from the case in December 2014. The High Court on May 7 also dismissed an application challenging Shah's discharge."We have no hesitation to hold that the application has been filed with an oblique motive and at the instance of some political adversary of Shah", the court held..The trial proceeded against then other accused.On December 21, 2018, special CBI Judge SJ Sharma acquitted all the 22 accused, which included serving and retired policemen from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh. The trial court concluded that the prosecution failed to satisfactorily prove charges of conspiracy and murder. Over the course of the trial, 210 witnesses were examined but the prosecution's case collapsed when 92 of them turned hostile.In his 358-page judgment, the trial judge expressed sympathy for the deceased's family but cited severe lack of conclusive evidence. The judge added that the accused could not be convicted strictly on moral or suspicion grounds.e.Advocates Gautam Tiwari, Tasneem Khatau, Suraj Jagtap, Nidhi Mishra, Vaishnavi Dubey and Bhavesh Thakur briefed by Probus Legal appeared for the brothers.Additional solicitor general Anil C Singh with advocates Kuldeep Patil, Aditya Thakkar, Chaitanya Chavan, Adarsh Vyas, Krishnakant Deshmukh, Rajdatt Nagre, Saili Dhuru, Anay Joshi, Sumitkumar Nimbalkar, Digvijay Kachare and Sanika Joshi appeared for CBI.Senior advocate Amit Desai with advocates Madhusudan Pareek and Gopal Shenoy appeared for some of the acquitted accused. Additional public prosecutors MM Deshmukh and JP Yagnik appeared for State.
