The Bombay High Court Thursday upheld a 2018 special court verdict acquitting all 22 accused, including 21 police personnel from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh, in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, as well as the killing of Shaikh’s wife Kauser Bi in 2005-06.

A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad dismissed appeals filed by Sohrabuddin’s brothers, Rubabuddin Shaikh and Nayabuddin Shaikh, against the special court verdict, pending for nearly seven years. The bench issued a brief oral order stating that the appeals were rejected.

“The trial Court applied the correct and settled legal principles in law. Its conclusions are not contrary to the evidence and documents on record. Nor can it be held that the judgment of the trial Court is manifestly unjust and unreasonable based on erroneous law and facts,” the HC held.

The bench observed that “foundation of the prosecution story is not established at all inasmuch as the prosecution failed to establish the abduction of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati, their illegal detention at Disha Farmhouse and Arham Farmhouse and the alleged fake encounter.”

The bench further noted “findings recorded by trial court are not perverse” and added, “The judgment of acquittal by the trial Court on December 21 2018 is rendered on consideration of the relevant materials on record keeping in mind the fundamental principles of criminal jurisprudence that the prosecution must establish its case beyond reasonable doubt.” Finding “no ground to interfere” with the trial court judgement, the HC dismissed appeals.

The prosecution had claimed Sohrabuddin was killed in a “staged” encounter in November 2005 in Gujarat, his wife was killed in the same month, and Prajapati was killed in December 2006.

The investigation was initially handled by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad and CID (Crime) before the Supreme Court transferred it to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), with the trial shifted to a special court in Mumbai.

The special court had earlier discharged 16 accused, including then Gujarat Home minister Amit Shah, senior IPS officers Dinesh M N, Rajkumar Pandiyan, and D G Vanzara, and former Rajasthan Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria.

Special court judge S J Sharma held on December 21, 2018, that the prosecution had failed to establish a conspiracy and observed that CBI conducted the probe with “premeditated theory and a script intended to somehow implicate political leaders”. Judge Sharma also observed that witnesses who had turned hostile spoke “truth” before the court, stating that CBI had wrongly recorded their statements.

While the appeals against the trial court verdict were filed in April 2019, the HC conducted the final hearing from December 2025 and concluded it on January 16, when it reserved its judgment, which was pronounced on Thursday.

In their appeal, Sohrabuddin’s brothers, represented by advocate Gautam Tiwari, claimed that “observations and conclusions made by the special judge were contradictory to the evidence”. They argued that testimonies of Prajapati’s co-inmates, which showed he feared for his life, were not considered by the trial court.

The CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, told the High Court that it had “accepted” the 2018 verdict and had not decided to file an appeal against it.

The defence counsel for those acquitted, including Senior Advocate Amit Desai, argued that “there was not even a bleak possibility of reversing the judgment of acquittal”. They also claimed there was “no direct evidence or even the circumstantial evidence” to establish the presence of the accused at the place and time of occurrence; the appeals were required to be rejected.