New Delhi, September 28, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and 22 accused, including 21 police personnel, on a plea challenging the Bombay High Court judgment that upheld their acquittal in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kauser Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued the notices on a special leave petition filed by Rubabuddin Shaikh, the younger brother of Sohrabuddin, challenging the High Court’s dismissal of appeals against the December 2018 acquittal of all 22 accused by a special CBI court.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 28.
Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for Rubabuddin, informed the Bench that another brother of the deceased, Nayabuddin Shaikh, had also filed a petition challenging the High Court judgment. He requested that both petitions be tagged and heard together.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court expressed concern over the fact that 92 witnesses had turned hostile during the trial and said it wanted to examine the statements of some witnesses to assess whether the trial had been fair and just.
“92 witnesses turning hostile is a serious concern. Although it was a concurrent finding (of acquittal), whether there was a fair and just trial — that’s to be considered. We would like to see the statements of some of the witnesses; we want to satisfy ourselves,” the Bench observed.
Senior advocate K. Parameshwar, appearing for some of the acquitted accused, submitted that the case involved concurrent findings of acquittal based on reasoned judgments. He sought an early hearing, stating that the accused did not want the matter to remain pending for a prolonged period.
The Supreme Court, however, clarified that it would not examine any challenge to the discharge of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the case. The Bench said it would not enter into paragraph 43 of the Bombay High Court judgment, which dealt with the challenge to Shah’s discharge in December 2014.
The High Court had noted that earlier petitions challenging Shah’s discharge had been rejected by both the High Court and the Supreme Court, and that a subsequent application had been filed without disclosing those facts.
In its judgment delivered on May 7, the Bombay High Court upheld the acquittal of all 22 accused and dismissed the appeals filed by Sohrabuddin’s brothers. The appeals had sought the setting aside of the trial court’s verdict or a retrial under Section 386(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The appellants had argued that the trial suffered from serious procedural flaws, including the failure to summon magistrates before whom some hostile witnesses had earlier recorded their statements. They also claimed that certain witnesses later alleged that their statements had not been accurately recorded during the trial. The High Court, however, declined to interfere with the acquittal.
The CBI had informed the High Court that it had accepted the December 2018 acquittal verdict and had not decided to challenge it in appeal.
The case relates to the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati from a luxury bus travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli on the night of November 22-23, 2005.
According to the prosecution, Sohrabuddin was killed in an alleged staged encounter near Ahmedabad in November 2005 by a joint team of Gujarat and Rajasthan Police personnel. Kauser Bi was allegedly killed a few days later, and her body was secretly disposed of. Prajapati, considered a key eyewitness in the case, was subsequently killed in another alleged fake encounter near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border in December 2006.
The investigation, initially conducted by the Gujarat Police, was later transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court. The trial was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai in 2012 and involved serving and retired police personnel from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, as well as a farmhouse owner accused of illegally confining the victims.
During the trial, Special CBI Judge B.H. Loya died in 2014. Subsequently, Judge M.B. Gosavi discharged Amit Shah from the case 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 the charges of conspiracy and murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
The trial court had recorded that 210 witnesses were examined, of whom 92 turned hostile. It observed that the accused could not be convicted on the basis of moral considerations or suspicion alone in the absence of cogent evidence establishing their involvement in the alleged conspiracy and killings.
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