Wrongful confinement case: SC stays ex-IPS officer’s sentence, allows him exemption from surrendering

Senior counsel I H Syed, who appeared for Sharma, said, “We had filed a revision petition before the Gujarat High Court against the order of conviction passed by a trial court (which was also upheld by Sessions court). We also moved two applications – one for exemption from surrendering and the second for suspension of sentence. The HC had admitted our revision petition. However, the other two applications were dismissed. So, we approached the apex court.”

“The Supreme Court heard us on Monday and allowed the (prayer of) exemption from surrendering. The Supreme Court also suspended the sentence till the final disposal of the criminal revision application before the HC. With that the SC disposed of the petition,” Syed added.

The petition was heard by the bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Manmohan.

Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, retired in 2012. In 2015, he joined the Congress and was later also appointed as a vice president of the party’s Gujarat unit.

The case dates back to May 6, 1984, when Sharma was posted as the Superintendent of Police in Kutch district and faced charges of wrongful confinement and custodial torture of a local Congress leader, Haji Abdulla Ibrahim alias Ibhla Sheth (now deceased).

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint of one Shankarlal Joshi. According to the complainant, the alleged incident happened when a delegation of local residents went to meet Sharma to make a representation on alleged harassment being faced by some people in connection with the investigation in a case registered in Naliya at that time. Apart from the complainant, the delegation comprised a number of local leaders, including the then local MLA Kharashankar Joshi and Ibhla Sheth.

The complainant had alleged that when Sharma learnt about Sheth being a part of the delegation, he rebuked the MLA for bringing a “smuggler”. Later, he (Shrma) allegedly took him (Sheth) to an adjoining room and got him beaten up by Vasavada and two other accused police officers, who died pending trial.

Sharma and Vasavada were convicted by a magisterial court in February 2025. The trial court convicted them for the charge of wrongful confinement and sentenced them to three months’ imprisonment.

Sharma and Vasavada had moved an appeal before a sessions court, which rejected it on September 24. The court, however, granted them stay on conviction for 15 days to approach the HC.

However, acting on an application moved by the complainant in the case, the sessions court recently (on October 10) issued a non-bailable warrant against Sharma and Vasavada after they did not get any further stay order from the HC.

Meanwhile, Sharma and Vasavada moved revision applications in the HC in which they challenged the order of the sessions court confirming their conviction in the case. They also moved applications seeking exemption from surrendering, apart from suspension of sentence and bail.

The HC admitted their (Sharma’s and Vasavada’s) revision applications seeking to challenge the conviction. However, it rejected the applications seeking exemption from surrendering and suspension of sentence during the pendency of their revision applications.

In its order, rejecting the revision applications, the HC observed that while granting stay on the order of conviction of the two for 15 days, the sessions court “committed serious error of law” without following the mandate of the relevant section of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Both Sharma and Vasavada challenged the HC order before the SC.