Former police officers DG Vanzara and MN Dinesh, accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, were discharged by a special court in Mumbai today. The court dropped the charges against them citing insufficient evidence. With their discharge, the number of accused let off in the case has gone up to 15.
Vanzara - one of Gujarat's most controversial police officers - was granted bail in the case in 2014. He was released from Ahmedabad's Sabarmati jail in February the next year after getting bail in the other case he was accused in - the killing of college student Ishrat Jehan, which, investigators say, was another fake encounter.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a petty criminal, was killed in near Gujarat's Gandhinagar area in November 2005 along with his wife Kauser Bi.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which later took over the case, said Sheikh and his wife were abducted while on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra and killed by the police. A witness to the crime, Tulsiram Prajapati, was killed a year later by the police.