R’than minister granted bail in sohrab case
A special CBI court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to former Rajasthan home minister Gulabchand Kataria and three others who were chargesheeted in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Director of RK Marble, Vimal Patni, Andra Pradesh cadre IPS officer N. Balasubraminiam and inspector Shrinivas Rao were also granted anticipatory bail on a bond of `50,000.
Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted from Hyderabad by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005. Tulsiram Prajapati, a key witness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by the police at Chapri village in the Banaskantha district in December 2006.
According to the chargesheet, Sheikh had demanded `24 crore from Patni as “protection money”, which is why he was targeted.
According to the CBI, Kataria was the link between Patni and former Gujarat minister Amit Shah, and he introduced Patni to Shah.
The CBI had alleged that Shah was the “kingpin” of the conspiracy in the encounter episode, in which most of the accused were policemen, including some IPS officers. Shah was arrested in July 2010, but was released on bail after three months.
The CBI added that after coming in contact with Patni, Shah planned the entire encounter operation with the help of the Gujarat police.
The Supreme Court had also ordered the transfer of the trial of the case to Maharashtra.
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