CBI faces flak for not producing evidence in court

Mumbai: Criticising the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for failing to put all evidence in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter on record, the Bombay high court asked the investigating agency to provide clarity in the case.    

The high court is hearing the petition of Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin who challenged the discharge of five of the 14 police officials by a special CBI court in the alleged fake encounter of his brother, his wife and aide by the Gujarat police in November 2005. Justice Revati Mohite-Dere sought to know why the CBI was unable to place all evidence on record before the court. 

The query was prompted after the CBI failed to place on record prima facie evidence based on which some police officials were discharged from the case. 

The court expressed exasperation on the CBI arguing only the role of the two discharged officials and not the others despite repeated queries from the court.    

“I am still unclear on the prosecution’s overall case since I am not getting enough assistance from the CBI,” the judge said. The court directed the CBI to submit details of all the witnesses’ statements recorded by the CBI. 

The court observed that since the day the hearings in the case began, each time it sought documents like the charge sheet, witness statements, or, seized letters related to the case but the CBI maintained that it did not have the papers and sought time to procure it.

Chiding the probe agency for its failure to submit witness statements who according to Rubabuddin had been threatened by IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian and then Gujarat ATS chief DG Vanzara into giving false statements to support their case, the court directed the probe agency to provide all documents sought by it.