Sohrabuddin case: Gujarat govt comes under attack in SC

NEW DELHI: The investigation of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case came under sharp attack in the Supreme Court on Monday with the court-appointed counsel and a relative of the victims accusing the Gujarat government of filing a chargesheet which would benefit the accused.

While Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, questioned the "conduct" of the state and its investigating agency in handling the case, Sohrabuddin's relative tried to give a communal tinge to it by stating that the Muslims in Gujarat were not getting a fair deal even in the courts.

"The history of the state in recent years (post-Godhra) will show that any accused who is Hindu is released but Muslims are not released," senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin Sheikh, said before a Bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee.

He claimed there has been a pattern in all encounter killings and people from minority community were being targeted and branded as member of terrorist outfits or being associated with Pakistan's ISI.

Subramanium and Dave, who opposed the Gujarat government's stand that after filing of chargesheet, the monitoring into the case comes to an end, said "it was completely an unacceptable chargesheet".

The two senior advocates took umbrage against Gujarat government after its counsel, senior advocate K T S Tulsi, said first they wanted that that the investigation be done by Inspector General (CID) Geetha Johri and now she becomes the target of accusation.

However, they refuted the allegation and said they were against the system and Johri was just a part of it.