While the CBI is yet to take a call on whether it will challenge a Mumbai special court’s December 2014 order discharging BJP president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh-Tulsi Prajapati killings, one of the two families of the deceased said it would appeal soon.
“We will file an appeal against the order in the Bombay high court before the 90-day ceiling to do so lapses, whether or not the CBI appeals,” said Mumbai-based lawyer Anubha Rastogi who represents Rubabuddin, deceased Sohrabuddin’s brother.
“A sub-clause of Section 372 of the amended Code of Criminal Procedure gives the original complainant the right to go in appeal even if the prosecution does not,” said Rastogi.
The 90-day deadline from the date the discharge order was given lapses on Monday. But according to a CBI source, the 90-day ceiling will lapse sometime next week since “its count begins from the day the discharge order’s certified copy gets delivered to the CBI.”
HT on Friday contacted CBI director Anil Sinha and joint director (policy) RS Bhatti to ask the agency’s plans ahead. On their behalf, the CBI communicated a one-line response, saying, “The matter is under our examination.”
It was Rubabuddin, the original complainant in the case, who had first approached the Supreme Court in 2007, alleging that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter, after which the latter had ordered a state police probe and a CBI probe in 2010.
{{/usCountry}}It was Rubabuddin, the original complainant in the case, who had first approached the Supreme Court in 2007, alleging that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter, after which the latter had ordered a state police probe and a CBI probe in 2010.
{{/usCountry}}While discharging Shah, the court had said the CBI mostly relied on evidence which is hearsay in nature. His lawyers had argued that the CBI “deliberately and mischievously” connected the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin with that of eyewitness Prajapati to falsely implicate Shah and “serve their political masters” at that particular time.