Sohrabuddin case: Don't discard testimonies, CBI to court; Judge says unexplained gaps in its theory
Mumbai, Dec 3: The CBI on Monday requested a special court hearing the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case not to discard entirely the testimonies of prosecution witnesses who have turned hostile, even as the court said the CBI's theory and charge sheet are "riddled with unexplained gaps".
The Central Bureau of Investigation said that the killings of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati--in 2005 and 2006--were staged and if some defects exist in the prosecuting agency's probe, it can't be a ground in itself to grant benefit or acquittal to the accused.
A total of 92 out of 200 witnesses examined in the case have turned hostile.
Special public prosecutor BP Raju, who was making his final arguments on behalf of the CBI before Special Court Judge SJ Sharma here, said that it was "unfortunate" that so many important prosecution witnesses had turned hostile and gone back on their statements given to the CBI and the magistrate courts.
He argued that the Supreme Court had ruled in many instances that courts could take cognisance of the testimonies given by those witnesses who eventually turned hostile.
"It is unfortunate that so many witnesses turned hostile (in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case) but the court must not discard their testimonies entirely, especially the statements given to the CBI by Nathuba Jadeja and Gurdayal Singh. They are very important," Raju said.
Jadeja and Singh, both constables of Gujarat police, were the CBI's "star witnesses" in the case who turned hostile during the trial.
As per the CBI charge sheet, which was filed earlier, Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were abducted by the Gujarat ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) on November 26, 2005 when they were travelling to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad in a private bus along with Prajapati.
While Sohrabuddin was killed near Ahmedabad some days after abduction, Kausar Bi met the same fate on November 29.
Prajapati, who was a witness to the incident, was allegedly killed by the Rajasthan and Gujarat police a year later (2006) in another fake encounter, as per the chargesheet.
While Raju said that all the three were killed in fake encounters, Judge Sharma said, "The CBI's theory and its charge sheet were riddled with unexplained gaps".
Prajapati's presence on the bus, in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were travelling, was not mentioned by any complainant, witnesses or probe agencies until 2010, when the CBI took over the probe from the Gujarat CID (Crime Investigation Department), the judge said.
"Sohrabuddin Shaikh's brother Rubab Uddin wrote a letter to the Supreme Court and filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court in 2006. However, he did not even whisper about Prajapati. The Gujarat police and the CID that initially probed the case made no mention of Prajapati being present at the site, or witnessing the incident.
"So what dots did the CBI join to conclude that he was the third person travelling with Sohrabuddin and his wife on that bus?" the judge asked.
The judge also noted that the CBI chargesheet was "silent" on Prajapati's whereabouts some hours before he was killed in the alleged fake encounter in December 2006.
At this, Raju said he was admitting of some "lacunae" in the CBI probe. "However, these questions were for the Gujarat police to answer as the latter had probed the case initially," he said.
"There are several judgements of the Supreme Court which rule that even if some defects exist in the prosecuting agency's probe, such defects can't be a ground in itself to grant benefit or acquittal to the accused person," the special public prosecutor argued.
He said much of the CBI's case depended on circumstantial evidence and that he will accordingly submit previous rulings of the top court on such evidence, besides "other relevant judgements" before the special court Tuesday.
Defence lawyers for Gujarat police officers ML Parmar, Narayansingh Dabhi and Balkrishna Choubey--who are among the 22 people facing trial in the case--argued that the CBI's case was "not cogent and its evidence was not unimpeachable".
The defence's arguments are likely to continue on Tuesday.
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'Vote chori' an attack on very idea of India: Siddaramaiah
New Delhi/Bengaluru (PTI): Targeting the ruling BJP at the Centre for the alleged 'vote chori' (vote theft), Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said, fascism does not begin with guns on the streets, it begins with the quiet theft of institutions, the slow manipulation of systems, and finally, the theft of elections.
Terming vote chori as an attack on the very idea of India, he said, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filing a charge sheet naming a former BJP MLA, his son, and others in Aland constituency in Karnataka, for alleged attempt to delete nearly 6,000 voters' names, makes a significant legal step.
The chief minister was speaking at the Congress' mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, against the vote chori.
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"History teaches us that fascism does not begin with guns on the streets, it begins with the quiet theft of institutions, the slow manipulation of systems, and finally, the theft of elections," Siddaramaiah said.
Authoritarian regimes around the world use one core tactic, which is rigging the democratic process while pretending to protect it. This is exactly what the BJP is doing today, he alleged.
"They capture institutions. They intimidate election machinery. They distort voter lists. They suppress turnout in Opposition areas. They violate the level playing field through money and power," he said, adding that "this is not just malpractice. This is vote chori which is an attack on the very idea of India."
Stating that a government born out of "stolen votes" is not a democratic government, the CM said, it is a government that fears the people, manipulates the mandate, and survives only through deceit.
"This is precisely how democracies decline into electoral autocracies. Today BJP's vote chori is the biggest threat to the republic since independence," he said.
Noting that, in these dark times, one leader has stood up with extraordinary courage, and that is Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah said the Congress leader investigated and exposed mismatched voter lists, booth-level manipulation, and patterns that pointed to systematic, organised vote chori.
"In constituency after constituency, from Mahadevapura to Aland, from Haryana to Bihar, he revealed how votes were suppressed, shifted, or diluted, especially in areas that stood with the Congress and INDIA bloc," he said.
The CM pointed out that in Karnataka itself, in the Mahadevapura and Aland assembly segments, serious irregularities were raised by Rahul Gandhi as examples of how vote chori is not an abstract allegation but a lived reality on the ground.
In Mahadevapura, evidence was presented showing thousands of duplicate or fraudulent voter entries and discrepancies in the electoral rolls that correlated with the BJP's narrow edge in the constituency, he said.
In Aland, thousands of attempted deletions of legitimate voters were recorded ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, including an alleged 6,018 applications for deletions, prompting an FIR and SIT investigation, Siddaramaiah further pointed out.
"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a charge sheet naming seven individuals, including a former BJP MLA and his son, for allegedly attempting to delete nearly 6,000 voters' names from the rolls in Aland constituency, marking a significant legal step in the fight against vote chori," he added.
Highlighting that these exposes shows that Rahul Gandhi has become the moral compass of this republic and a crusader against the vote chori, the CM said, his fight is rooted in constitutional morality, Ambedkarite thought, and the foundational democratic principle that sovereignty belongs to the people, not to a party, not to a regime, and certainly not to those who are willing to steal elections.
"When a young woman waits in line for hours to vote and later finds that her vote has been deleted, she feels cheated. When an elderly farmer wakes up at dawn to cast his vote but finds his name missing, he feels betrayed," he added.
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According to Siddaramaiah, the vote chori is not just about numbers, it is about dignity, it is about equality, and it is about the soul of our republic.
"We must demand: transparent electoral rolls, accountability of election authorities, independent institutions, a voting system people can trust, and a political culture rooted in constitutional values, and we must declare together that -- We will not allow fascism to enter India through the backdoor of vote chori," he said.
Let us rise as one nation, one people, one democracy. Let history record that when the vote chori threatened India, the people stood up, and the people won, he added.
