Ahmedabad:
The Gujarat High Court on Friday declined to entertain the bail plea of a suspended police officer, who is an accused in the 2005 fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, an alleged gangster, on the ground that the Supreme Court has transferred the case to Maharashtra.
N K Amin, a former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), was arrested in 2007. Justice Anant Dave declined to hear Mr Amin's petition holding that this court no longer has the jurisdiction in the case as its trial has been shifted to the neighbouring state, and disposed of the plea.
Mr Amin, accused of disposing the body of Kausar Bi, wife of Sheikh, had in 2010 filed an application to become an approver but withdrew the plea later.
The former DySP sought bail on the ground that CBI, probing the case, has no material evidence against him.
Mr Amin has also maintained that he has been suffering with a life threatening disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and needs minimum of five hours of oxygen supply under the supervision of a trained medical professional for proper breathing.
While disposing the petition, the HC asked the CBI to provide proper medical care to the accused in the light of his prevailing health and directed Mr Amin to file a bail petition in the Maharashtra Court.
Sheikh, along with his wife and associate Tulsiram Prajapati, was abducted from Hyderabad by a Gujarat Police team. On November 26, 2005 Sheikh was allegedly killed in a staged encounter on Ahmedabad's outskirts. A few days later his wife was also killed in mysterious way and her body disposed of.
Mr Amin, then with Ahmedabad Crime Branch, has been accused of being involved in the operation of abducting Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi. Prajapati, a key witness to the killing of Sheikh, was shot dead, allegedly in a fake encounter, a year later at Chhapri in Banaskantha district.
The Supreme Court had asked the CBI to probe both encounter cases. Last month, the apex court, on an application of CBI, shifted the Sheikh case to Maharashtra.