By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday issued notices to the Gujarat government on two lawsuits, including one by film lyricist and activist Javed Akhtar, seeking prosecution of Chief Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly plotting the killing of Ujjain youth Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi.
A bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Aftab Alam issued notices to the state government also on another lawsuit by Sheikh’s brother Rubabuddin Sheikh.
The two lawsuits had been filed in December after Modi, during the campaign for the state assembly election, had allegedly justified the staged police killing of Sohrabuddin as a suspected terrorist.
The lawsuit on behalf of Akhtar has been filed by senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, who has also sought the apex court’s direction to the Election Commission to cancel Modi’s candidature in the election on the grounds of inciting and aggravating communal hatred in the state for electoral gains.
The petition on behalf of Rubabuddin Sheikh has been filed by senior counsel Dushyant Dave. In his petition, Sheikh said he had all along been fearing that Sohrabuddin had been killed in a conspiracy plotted personally by Modi.
Ujjain-based Sohrabuddin, in his early 30s, was killed in a police shootout in Ahmedabad Nov 26, 2005. Police had then claimed he was a terrorist and was planning to target Modi. However, an inquiry showed that he was only a petty criminal and the shootout was staged.
His wife Kauserbi was also killed by police and her body was later burnt and disposed of.
While issuing the notices on the two petitions, pending in the court for over nine months, the bench slated their tentative hearing for the first week of November.