Mumbai: A special CBI court hearing Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases on Tuesday rejected the bail application of a former police inspector of Gujarat ATS who had allegedly fired at Sheikh.
"Your bail application is rejected on merit and on the ground of parity. You have fired three rounds and one has hit the deceased (Sheikh) and you have a direct role in the case," CBI court judge B H Loya said, rejecting the bail plea of N H Dhabi.
Dhabi had allegedly kidnapped Sheikh from Andhra Pradesh and was part of the police team that killed the gangster in a fake encounter.
He had sought bail on the ground that some of the accused in the case had already got it. Earlier, the court granted BJP president Amit Shah's prayer for exemption from personal appearance. Shah, in his application, had expressed his inability to attend the proceedings as was away and travelling.
The case is likely to come up for hearing again on September 22.
The CBI has charge-sheeted Shah, a former Minister of State for Home of Gujarat, and 37 others, including several police officers, in the two cases of alleged fake encounters.
According to CBI, gangster Sohrabuddin, who was claimed to have links to Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his wife Kauser Bi, were abducted by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad when they were on way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra and killed in an alleged staged encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.
Prajapati, an eyewitness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.
According to the CBI, Shah was allegedly involved in the conspiracy behind both the incidents.
