The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to five police personnel of Rajasthan and Gujarat Police, who are accused in Tulsi Prajapati and Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter cases. "They have been granted bail on the bail bond of Rs 50,000 each, on grounds of parity," advocate Hiten Venegaonkar, who represented the Central Bureau of Investigation, said.
The names of the accused who have been given bail are -- PSI Aashish Arunkumar Pandya and Naransinh Harisinh Dabhi of Gujarat Police; and Abdul Rehman Rashid Khan, Kartar Singh Yadram Jhat and Dalpat Singh Khuman Singh of Rajasthan Police.
Kartar Singh, Dalpat Singh and A A Pandya are accused in the Tulsiram Prajapati case; while Abdul Rehman and N H Dabhi are accused in Sohrabuddin case.
Abdul Rehman was allegedly directly involved in shooting Sohrabuddin. PSI Pandya, who allegedly shot Tulsiram, had claimed to have been injured by gunshots fired by Tulsiram. The CBI had found lapses in this claim.
On Monday, Jusitce M L Tahaliyani granted bail to all the five accused on the basis of the Supreme Court's verdict about bail to the main accused in the two cases.The court said that the pre-trial detention in the cases has been long and that the trial in both the cases is not likely to be over within reasonable time in the future.
The accused had pleaded for bail on the grounds that the other accused in the case have been granted bail by the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court. The CBI had opposed the bail on the apprehension that they might tamper the witnesses.
The court has disallowed all five of them from entering the limits of Gujarat without the permission of the trial court.They will have to surrender their passports to the Central Bureau of Investigation, and will have to remain present before the trial court every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
