By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear a petition of Gujarat police officer Rajkumar Pandiyan, an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake gun battle case – and directed him to approach a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court or the high court for bail.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan told Pandiyan, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer now in judicial custody, to present his bail plea before the CBI, which is probing the case.
The bench of Justice Balakrishnan, Justice Deepak Verma and Justice B.S. Chauhan also declined the plea of senior counsel Ram Jethmalani that it should say that the CBI court or the high court would hear the application without being influenced by the adverse observations of the apex court in respect of his client.
Fifteen policemen have been arrested for the November 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin, who police claimed was killed in a shootout near Ahmedabad Nov 28, 2005. His wife Kauserbi has been missing since then.
The policemen’s arrests followed a petition filed by Rubabuddin Sheikh, a brother of Sohrabuddin, in the Supreme Court.
The bench said that CBI or the high court would hear the bail application without being influenced by the rejection of earlier bail pleas.
When Jethmalani insisted that the court should say that lower court would hear the bail application on merit, Chief Justice Balakrishnan said, “You have a long experience in criminal law and you know any number of bail applications could be filed.”
At this Jethmalani said, “My long experience in criminal law is of no use to this court.”
“The CBI is under the political influence of the centre,” Jethmalani added.
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh at this said that the court goes by law and not politics.
Jethmalani said his client was sent to jail without his presence and without affording him an opportunity of being heard.
Counsel said the apex court verdict in Sohrabuddin Sheikh case was a blot on the face of the country’s top judicial body as it “should not have given such a verdict”.
He said that this involved questions of great “moral and legal” dimensions.
Jethmalani said the client was in jail in breach of the right to life and personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution.
He said his client is being hauled up for killing a “notorious person who was threat to the security of the country”.
He said, “If I (Pandiyan) have committed a crime, I will account for it. But justice should be done to me.”
At this, another senior counsel, Dushyant Dave who appeared for Sohrabuddin’s brother Robabuddin, said: “You (Pandiyan) should never come out.”
“Three innocent people were killed through a conspiracy by the top officers of the state (Gujarat) government.”
Dave said, “Mr. Jethmalani you have come today. Your client was aware of all that was happening all along”.
At this, Chief Justice Balakrishnan said that “the law of the country permitted every accused to apply for bail.”