Big crime, no punishment

The acquittal on Friday of all the 22 accused in the high-profile Sohrabuddin fake encounter case that dates back to 2005 is bound to raise uncomfortable questions as regards the standards of investigations and the process of trials in India.

The scepticism deepens when the investigating authority is the Central Bureau of Investigation, firming suspicions that prosecution proceedings are not conducted to deliver justice but to protect the powerful.

A supposed gangster, Sohrabuddin was allegedly kidnapped by the Gujarat police in 2005 when Narendra Modi was the state chief minister. Three days later his wife also met a gory end in extremely suspicious circumstances involving Gujarat policemen. Not long after, Sohrabuddin’s acquaintance or accomplice Prajapati was also allegedly bumped off.

The 38 persons charged included the then Gujarat minister of state for home, Amit Shah, top cop D.G. Vanzara, and several other high-ups. In the course of trial, these persons were discharged. That, in retrospect, should have been a clue that the remaining 22, who were mainly minor police functionaries, would also come out unscathed.

The judge in the CBI court said that the prosecution could not bring up evidence to prove conspiracy to kill. Nearly 50 per cent of the 210 witnesses turned hostile. All this sounds only too familiar. Interestingly, Rajneesh Rai, an IPS officer who conducted the investigation in its early stages when the bigwigs were named, was hounded and has since been suspended. This case seems to symbolise everything that’s wrong with India’s criminal justice system.