List steps to protect Sohrabuddin case witnesses: HC to CBI

Mumbai, February 12

On a day two more witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case turned hostile, the Bombay High Court today sought to know from the CBI the steps it was taking to ensure that the witnesses were able to testify “fearlessly”.

The HC posed the question to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after noting that several of the witnesses in the case examined by a special court here had turned hostile, and maintained that the premier investigative agency can’t be a “silent spectator”.

A single Bench, presided by Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, said it was the probe agency’s duty to extend protection to its witnesses to ensure they faced no fear or coercion while deposing before the special court.

“Is it not the CBI’s responsibility to ensure that its witnesses are protected so that they can depose against the accused fearlessly?

“Considering that several witnesses have turned hostile before the special CBI court, are you providing any protection to them? Your responsibility does not end simply at filing the chargesheet. It is your duty to protect your witnesses,” Justice Mohite-Dere said. The observations came while the court was hearing an appeal filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of former Gujarat IPS officer NK Amin, one of the 15 accused who have been discharged from the case by the special court. The CBI has charged Amin with being a part of the conspiracy to kill Sheikh, an alleged gangster, his wife Kausar Bi and their aide Tulsiram Prajapati.

To prove its case against Amin, the probe agency has primarily relied upon the statement of Nathuba Jadeja, the driver of the private vehicles in which Sheikh and others were allegedly taken by the accused to the encounter spot in 2005. As per the CBI’s records presented before the HC, Jadeja gave a statement to the probe agency stating he had seen Amin at the encounter site and also at the spot where the accused allegedly burnt Kausar Bi’s dead body in an attempt to cover up the incident.

Sheikh and Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat police in November 2005, while Prajapati was gunned down in another alleged stage-managed gunfight by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006. — PTI