BALKRISHAN RAJENDRAPRASAD CHAUBEY Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant a policeman, who was working as a SubInspector of Police in the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) Ahmedabad, at the material time, is the accused No. 6, in the case arising out of R.C.No.BS1/S/2010/0004 dated 1/2/2010 registered with CBI SCB, Mumbai. There are totally 19 accused in the case. The allegation against the applicant and the other accused is that, they have committed offences punishable under sections 120B of the IPC read with sections 365 IPC, 368 IPC, 302 IPC and 201 of the IPC.

(2.) The case of the investigating agency, in brief, is that the police officials of Anti Terrorists Squad (ATS), Gujarat, and Special Task Force, Rajasthan, entered into a criminal conspiracy to abduct one Sohrabuddin Shaikh from Andhra Pradesh in order to kill him. That the said Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who had some criminal background, was attempting to extort money from some powerful businessmen from Gujarat and Rajasthan who had approached political leaders for their protection. It was thereafter planned, by taking high ranking Police Officers in confidence, that Sohrabuddin Shaikh should be got killed and should be shown as having died in an encounter with the police. Pursuant to this conspiracy hatched, Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausarbi, and one more person Tulsiram Prajapati were abducted from Andhra Pradesh and brought to Ahmedabad by the Police Officials from Rajasthan and Gujarat. They were confined in a farm house near Ahmedabad for sometime. Later on, Sohrabuddin was killed by the police. As preplanned, it was projected as if he had been killed in an encounter with the police. Preparation had already been made for lodging of a false First Information Report to the effect that Sohrabuddin had come to Ahmedabad for killing a prominent political leader, and that Sohrabuddin was to do this with the cooperation and help of Pakistan Based Intelligence Agency ISI, and Terrorist Outfit Laskare Toyeba. A story was cooked up that since the police were in receipt of this information, they had kept a watch at a particular point on the road by which Sohrabuddin, as per the information received, was to come. That, when Sohrabuddin came to the said place on a motorcycle, he was asked to stop by the police, but he did not respond to the said call and opened fire on police. The police officers fired in retaliation, and in this firing, Sohrabuddin fell down on being hit by the bullets fired by the police.

(3.) A first information report to this effect viz. that a person who had come to kill a prominent political leader with the cooperation of the Pakistan Based Intelligence Agency etc., was killed in an encounter with the police, was lodged, as preplanned, by the accused No. 7 Abdul Rehman, PI, and was registered with the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), Gujarat in respect of offences punishable under sections 120B IPC, 121 IPC, 121A IPC, 122 IPC, 307 IPC, 186 IPC, 24 of the IPC, vide C.R.No.5 of 2005 of ATS Police Station. The said case was investigated into by Accused no.4 Mukeshbhai Parmar, working as Dy. Superintendent of Police, ATS Gujarat, at the material time, who filed an abated Summary Report.