Shift Sohrabuddin encounter case trial from Gujarat: SC
28 Aug 2012
In a huge setback to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court today said that the case pertaining to Sohrabuddin Sheikh's fake encounter could not proceed in the state.
"We have strong reservation about the trial to be conducted in the state", a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.
The observation came as a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for shifting the case out of the state was being heard. The agency also wants former Gujarat minister Amit Shah's bail, granted in October 2010 by the Gujarat High Court, to be cancelled.
Shah, the former home minister, is accused of having played a key role in the fake encounter that led to the death of Sheikh, a petty criminal, who was shot dead by the Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in November 2005.
The had police originally claimed that he was a terrorist from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, however, according to investigations, he was killed for trying to blackmail powerful marble traders in neighbouring Rajasthan.
The businessmen allegedly approached Shah, who was the home minister of Gujarat, at the time, for help. According to the CBI, Shah ordered the assassination of Sheikh.
