New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government in Gujarat suffered a setback on Tuesday with the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe into the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case and rapping the state police for trying to mislead the court.
A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam in its verdict accepted a demand for the CBI probe on the plea of the brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot dead along with two others by Gujarat Police in 2005. The police claimed Sohrabuddin was a gangster.
The decision is a major blow to the BJP government in Gujarat, which has been consistently maintaining that its Special Investigation Team was conducting the probe in an impartial manner. In its judgment, the court in fact said that it felt the police had "failed to carry out a fair and impartial investigation as we initially wanted them to do."
The Supreme Court came down strongly on the Gujarat Police saying it had tried to mislead the court. It said the investigation conducted by Gujarat Police was not in the right direction and that there were a large number of discrepancies in its reports.
The judges said, "In our view, the facts surrounding his death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness."
The court will monitor the probe and directed the CBI to submit its report within six months. The Narendra Modi government in Gujarat suffered a setback on Tuesday with the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe into the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case and rapping the state police for trying to mislead the court.
A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Aftab Alam in its verdict accepted a demand for the CBI probe on the plea of the brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot dead along with two others by Gujarat Police in 2005. The police claimed Sohrabuddin was a gangster.
The decision is a major blow to the BJP government in Gujarat, which has been consistently maintaining that its Special Investigation Team was conducting the probe in an impartial manner. In its judgment, the court in fact said that it felt the police had "failed to carry out a fair and impartial investigation as we initially wanted them to do."
The Supreme Court came down strongly on the Gujarat Police saying it had tried to mislead the court. It said the investigation conducted by Gujarat Police was not in the right direction and that there were a large number of discrepancies in its reports.
The judges said, "In our view, the facts surrounding his death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness."
The court will monitor the probe and directed the CBI to submit its report within six months.