New Delhi, August 24, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Nayabuddin Shaikh, younger brother of deceased Sohrabuddin Shaikh, has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court judgment upholding the acquittal of all 22 accused in the case involving the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi and their associate Tulsiram Prajapati.
According to details available on the Supreme Court’s official website, the petition has been filed by Nayabuddin Shaikh and registered as Diary No. 49466/2026. It was filed on August 13 at around 10.52 pm and is currently listed under “Cases under Defect List valid for 90 Days”. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been made a respondent, while advocate Achint Kumar is representing the petitioner.
The plea challenges the May 7 judgment of a Bombay High Court Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad. The High Court had dismissed appeals filed by Sohrabuddin’s brothers against the December 2018 judgment of the special CBI court acquitting all 22 accused, including 21 police personnel.
The High Court had held that the prosecution failed to establish the alleged conspiracy and killings through reliable evidence. The appellants had sought reversal of the acquittal or, alternatively, a retrial under Section 386(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
They had argued that the trial suffered from serious procedural shortcomings, including the failure to summon magistrates before whom some witnesses had earlier recorded statements after subsequently turning hostile. They also contended that several witnesses had claimed their statements were not accurately recorded during the trial.
The High Court, however, declined to interfere with the acquittal. The CBI had also told the court that it had accepted the 2018 verdict and had not decided to challenge the acquittal.
The case concerns the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Prajapati from a luxury bus travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli on the night of November 22-23, 2005. According to the prosecution case, Sohrabuddin was subsequently killed in an alleged staged encounter near Ahmedabad by Gujarat and Rajasthan Police personnel. Kauser Bi was allegedly killed days later and her body secretly disposed of. Prajapati, described as a key eyewitness, was killed in another alleged fake encounter on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006.
The investigation was initially conducted by Gujarat Police before being transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court. The apex court also shifted the trial from Gujarat to Mumbai in 2012.
The trial involved serving and retired police personnel from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, besides a farmhouse owner accused of illegally confining the victims. Special CBI Judge B.H. Loya died in 2014 while the proceedings were pending. Subsequently, then BJP leader and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah was discharged from the case by Judge M.B. Gosavi in December 2014.
On December 21, 2018, Special CBI Judge S.J. Sharma acquitted all 22 accused, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish conspiracy and murder charges beyond reasonable doubt. The trial court recorded that 210 witnesses had been examined, of whom 92 turned hostile. It held that convictions could not be based merely on suspicion or moral considerations in the absence of cogent evidence linking the accused to the alleged conspiracy and killings.
The Supreme Court petition now challenges the Bombay High Court’s decision to uphold those acquittals.
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