CBI Court Discharges Rajasthan Ex-Minister Gulabchand Kataria from Sohrabuddin case

26 Feb, Mumbai

A special CBI court in Mumbai Thursday discharged senior BJP leader and Rajasthan’s former Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria and businessman Vimal Patni from the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases due to insufficient evidence against them.

Special CBI judge MB Gosavi said that there is no sufficient ground to proceed against the accused.

The judge also rejected the statements of CBI witnesses Prajapati and Azam Khan, close aides of Sheikh, on which the investigating agency had relied to chargesheet them.

With Kataria being discharged from the case, two senior politicians from BJP, including its president Amit Shah, who had earlier been charge-sheeted in the two cases, will now not stand trial after relief from the court.

The Sohrabuddin killing case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 at CBI’s request to ensure a fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court had clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati’s encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin.