In a major setback to the Modi government, Gujarat High Court on Tuesday ordered to quash and set aside an FIR in a 26 year old encounter case filed against senior IPS officer and ADGP Kuldeep Sharma.
CID (crime) of Gujarat police had lodged an FIR on August 10 against Sharma in 1984 encounter case in Kutch where Sharma was posted as SP.
The court has ruled in Sharma's favour after Sharma approached the HC, seeking quashing and setting aside the FIR against him.
Sharma, through his lawyer, submitted in the court that FIR was an act of vendetta and vengeance, by the state government in order to implicate and frame Sharma in a 26 year old case.
He also submitted in his petition that he was being targeted by the state authorities ever since he wrote a letter to the then minister of state for home Amit Shah for accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 crore from cooperative bank fraudster Ketan Parekh to help him get a bail from the court.
Moreover, on the encounter case in which he was sought to be made accused, he submitted that he was not even present at the crime scene when the encounter occurred between the police and alleged smugglers in May 1984 in Kutch district where two alleged smugglers were bumped off by the police.
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, on the encounter case in which he was sought to be made accused, he submitted that he was not even present at the crime scene when the encounter occurred between the police and alleged smugglers in May 1984 in Kutch district where two alleged smugglers were bumped off by the police.
{{/usCountry}}The state CID had lodged FIR based on an application by one Jusab Juma Mokha of Kutch, which stated that Sharma, along with other policemen had allegedly killed five members of his family including father, elder brother and uncle in 1984.
Sharma was charged under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 365 (kidnapping), 368 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) besides rioting and other sections.
In 2005, Sharma was head of state CID and had written a letter to the then Chief Secretary of Gujarat.
In the letter, he had alleged that former minister of state for home Amit Shah, now arrested by CBI in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, had allegedly received a bribe of Rs 2.5 crore from Ketan Parekh, main accused in the Rs 1,600 crore fraud in Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank (MMCB).
Following this, Shah had prematurely withdrawn the petition filed by the State in the case in the Supreme Court, he had alleged in his letter written to the then Chief Secretary.