Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High court today turned down the bail application of suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot, an accused in the 2003 Sadiq Jamal fake encounter case.
Justice Anant Dave, who refused relief to Barot, observed that “the condition (from the time of encounter) has not changed”.
The special CBI court had rejected Barot's bail application on December 1, noting that as per the charge sheet, Barot was involved in the execution of the encounter. The suspended police officer, who is behind the bars for over two years, had said in his bail plea before the High Court that CBI had not made any progress in the investigation and the trial was not likely to start soon, so he may be released.
But, CBI argued that Barot was an influential person who could tamper with the evidence and cause harm to the witnesses.
Sadiq Jamal, a small-time criminal, was killed in an encounter allegedly by the Gujarat Police in Naroda area here on January 13, 2003. Police claimed that he was a terrorist on the mission to kill the top leaders in the state.
In June 2011, the Gujarat High Court transfered the case to CBI following a petition by Shabbir Jamal, Sadiq's brother, who alleged that it was a staged encounter. The central agency concluded that the encounter was fake, and Sadiq had been in illegal custody of Ahmedabad crime branch before being killed.
The charge sheet, filed in December 2012, names Barot and seven other police officers.
