SC allows accused cop to visit ailing mother

Balkrishan R Chaubey

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted permission to police inspector Balkrishan R Chaubey, a key accused in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi, to visit his ailing mother in Ahmedabad for a week. Chaubey will be visiting his home after nearly two years.

Chaubey is confined to Mumbai as per his bail conditions and has been barred from entering Gujarat. Chaubey had moved a petition in the apex court, seeking permission to attend to his mother. He had sought relaxation on the ground of his mother’s health who is supposed to undergo cancer treatment. Chaubey was chargesheeted as accused number 6 by the CID (crime) in 2007, long before the CBI took over the case in 2010.

[related-post]

He is accused of being present at the spot where Sohrabuddin was shot dead by the accused officers of Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). He was posted as a sub-inspector then. He was granted bail, along with co-accused and IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, in March 2014, but both of them were restricted to stay in Mumbai. They had been in Mumbai since 2013 after SC transferred the case to CBI special court in Mumbai.

Following their bail, the state government revoked their suspension earlier this year and reinstated them. Pandian is appointed as a liaison officer at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation in Mumbai while Chaubey still waits for a post.