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Journalism of Courage
Days after his elevation as BJP general secretary,former Gujarat minister Amit Shah got a major relief from the Supreme Court on Monday when it quashed the CBIs FIR against him in the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case and ordered there should be only one trial in the Prajapati and Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter cases.
Indicating that Shah was not being investigated,prosecuted and tried in accordance with law by the CBI,a Bench led by Justice P Sathasivam held he could not be tried separately by the CBI in the two encounter cases in view of probe agencys own stand in the past.
Prajapati was said to be witness to the abduction and killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife in an alleged staged police encounter in 2005. After getting a nod from the apex court to probe his killing,the CBI filed a fresh FIR on April 29,2011,and a chargesheet against Shah on September 4,2012,naming him as the prime accused.
Shah is currently out on bail in the Sohrabuddin case whose trial is being held in a Mumbai court after SC ordered that the case should be heard by a court outside Gujarat.
The SC Bench noted that CBI had consistently taken a stand that killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi in November 2005 and subsequent elimination of Prajapati in December 2006 were part of the same conspiracy. In fact,the investigation in Prajapati case,it underlined,was handed over to the CBI after it pleaded for further investigation in the Sohrabuddin case and hence the agency could not be now permitted to take a contradictory stand. …In such circumstances,filing of the second FIR and a fresh chargesheet for the same is contrary to the provisions of the code,suggesting that the petitioner was not being investigated,prosecuted and tried in accordance with law, said the Bench.
It also said the fresh chargesheet would be considered as a supplementary chargesheet in the Sohrabuddin case.
