In the matter of the famous case of fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, after nearly four years of hard work and with much difficulty, path was cleared for the compensation for the relatives of the deceased but justice is still a far away dream. Even this compensation they received after the intervention of the Supreme Court, otherwise the state government had overlooked even this. In the hearing of the application given by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin the Supreme Court instructed the state government that if it had already accepted that the encounter was fake then it had to pay compensation to the family of the deceased. Although the Supreme Court did not fix the amount of compensation and left the decision on the state government with the instruction that the state government give the reply in the next hearing scheduled on 11th August. As far as the criminal prosecution in the fake encounter case by the police officials is concerned, the petitioner also took up this issue and expressing dissatisfaction over the CID enquiry ordered by the state government asked for a CBI enquiry. The court did not accept this plea rather it passed an difficult order for the state government that it gives a reply as to why not this fake encounter enquiry should also be given to the special enquiry team which was investigating the special matter of mass murder during the Gujarat riots which the above mentioned court itself had formed in last March, which will carry out the hearing in the related cases in the state courts but it will only be answerable to the supreme court. Neither the state courts nor the state government can interfere either in it’s power or it’s enquiry.
Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, which after staying in the news for a long time had all of a sudden vanished from the limelight, the above mentioned instructions by the supreme court has once again brought it back in news and has increased the difficulties for Narendra Modi’s state government. The above said matter is of November 2005. Not only Sohrabuddin’s fake encounter was done but the two eye witnesses Sohrabuddin’s wife Kausar bi and his friend Tulsiram Prajapati were also killed by the police so that the evidences are buried and everyone believes in the fabricated tale. But the police was not successful in it’s plan. After facing disappointment from all quarters Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin knocked the doors of the Supreme court for justice then the state government on the orders from the court carried out an enquiry by the CID and accepted that this is a case of fake encounter. Then all the convicts especially the chief of the Gujarat Anti-terrorist Squad D G Vanzara, Superintendent of Police Raj Kumar Pandian and the higher police officer of the Rajasthan Police Dinesh Kumar were send behind the bars and now they are in jails but the affected people were neither given any compensation nor any justice.
Those police officers of Gujarat who along with the police officers of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh had said that Sohrabuddin was a terrorist of Lashkar-e-tayyaba and had claimed to have killed him in an encounter, they were themselves proved to be terrorists in the enquiry. They not only killed Sohrabuddin after abducting him from a bus, moreover they also killed Sohrabuddin’s wife and burnt her dead body and dispersed the ashes in the fields so that all the traces were removed. Later on in order to cover up the false and wrong deeds they also murdered Prajapati in a fake encounter. But in the end the games of the police were unmasked. Gujarat CID brought the truth out in the open and unmasked the convicts and sent them to jail but due to the lack of interest of the state government they could not be brought to justice. The matter has once again reached the Supreme court. From the initial stand of the court it can be expected that the way in which doors were opened for the compensation for the affected people similarly road to justice will also be cleared.
07/08/09 Editorial, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Asma Anjum Siddiqui
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