SC DISMISSES GUJARAT PLEA TO REVIEW ORDER OF CBI PROBE IN ENCOUNTER

The Supreme Court has dismissed the Gujarat government’s plea to review its order for a CBI probe into the alleged extra-judicial killing of Tulsiram Prajapati, an eyewitness to ‘fake encounter’ case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, allegedly involving state’s former home minister Amit Shah. A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan found “no merit” in the state’s review petition, which had contended that no CBI probe could be ordered as the state police has already filed a charge sheet in the case. The apex court had ordered the CBI probe in April 2011 on an appeal by Tulsiram Prajapati’s mother Narmada Bai, who had alleged that her son was killed by the Gujarat police in a staged gun battle because he was a key eyewitness in the November 2005 killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi. The apex court said the petitioner had made out a strong case for the transfer of investigation to the CBI as there was strong suspicion about the involvement of police personnel from three states – Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.