Sohrabuddin case: 3 cops get bail

Parmar’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani and lawyer Gunjan Mangla argued that he had been in jail for seven years and the charges are yet to be framed in the case.

The Bombay High Court Monday granted bail to three police officers accused in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife Kausarbi in Gujarat. It, however, granted a stay on the operation of its order for a week, following a request made by the CBI.

The court’s order comes within a month of the Supreme Court’s order granting bail to suspended IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, who faces serious charges in the elimination of Shaikh, Kau-sarbi and the subsequent killing of Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness in the earlier encounter.

Justice A R Joshi granted bail to the three accused – Abhaysinh Chudasama, Dinesh M N and M L Parmar – against a solvent surety of Rs 1 lakh and were asked to make an appearance on the first Sunday every month before the special CBI court in Mumbai, where they are facing trial in the case.

In the alleged encounter near Gandhinagar in 2005, the CBI had also chargesheeted Amit Shah, former Gujarat minister, BJP leader from Rajasthan Gulab Chand Kataria and Andhra Pradesh IGP (Intelligence) N Balasubramanyam, among others. The Supreme Court had in 2012 directed the trial to be shifted to Maharashtra from Gujarat as the CBI contended that the witnesses in the case were being intimidated.

Citing Pandian’s case, the accused had mainly sought bail on parity. Parmar’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani and lawyer Gunjan Mangla argued that he had been in jail for seven years and the charges are yet to be framed in the case. They also stated that Parmar’s role was that of arranging for a farm, where Shaikh and his wife were allegedly confined. This, they stated, was much less grave that the role attributed to Pandian by the CBI.

The CBI’s counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said that because of the order of the Supreme Court granting bail the Pandian, the agency had conceded in the case of Chudasama and Parmar. However, he said they were opposed to grant to bail to Dinesh, SP, Rajasthan ATS.

SC dismisses plea against SIT member

The Supreme Court Monday dismissed a petition, demanding criminal prosecution and contempt proceedings against one members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed into the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

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A bench led by Justice H L Dattu refused to admit a plea by Gopinath Pillai, father of Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, who was among the four killed in the Ishrat Jahan encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004.

The bench said the plea was pre-mature and that Pillai should wait for some more time. Pillai had sought actions against SIT member Mohan Jha for allegedly seeking to dissuade witnesses in the case from making incriminating depositions.

His petition claimed that the list of witnesses submitted by the CBI along with the chargesheet indicated that senior Gujarat Police officer Jha had pressured witnesses into retracting their statements.

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