All 22 accused, including 21 cops, acquitted in controversial Sohrabuddin encounter case

A special CBI court on Friday acquitted all 22 accused in the alleged fake encounter killings of gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsi Prajapati, citing insufficient evidence.

Special CBI Judge S J Sharma in his ruling said the court felt sorry for the families of Shaikh and Prajapati as "three lives were lost". But the system demands that the court go solely by evidence, he added.

All the accused, who were mostly police officials from Gujarat and Rajasthan, were out on bail during the year-long trial. The 13-year-old case saw several twists and turns, including 92 prosecution witnesses turning hostile. At one point, BJP president Amit Shah was also arrested in the case in July 2010 but was discharged in December 2014.

Judge Sharma said the prosecution had failed to establish a cogent case to suggest that there was any conspiracy to kill the three people, or that the accused persons had any role in it.

He said that while there was no denying that Shaikh and the others were killed, "going by the evidence on record, the court could not conclude that the present accused persons could be questioned, or, held accountable for those deaths."