Supreme Court grants bail to Rajkumar Pandian

New Delhi, 28 March 2014

The Supreme Court has granted bail to Sohrabuddin encounter case accused suspended IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian and cop Balkishan Chaube.

Pandian and Chaube have been in judicial custody for around seven years. Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani represented Pandian in Supreme Court.

Pandian had told the court that he is in jail for last nearly seven years and the records, running into over 3,000 pages, are yet to be received by the trial judge. He cannot be kept inside forever. The Bench agreed with him that incarceration for almost seven years during the pendency of a case required a consideration on bail.

Pandian has moved the apex court after the Bombay High Court on November 20 rejected his bail application. The CBI had opposed the bail application in the high court saying that the police officer is a key accused who had picked up the duo from Hyderabad before they were killed in the alleged fake encounter.

Pandian, along with IPS officer Abhay Chudasama, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M N and other low-rank policemen are lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai after the Supreme Court transferred the trial in the case to Mumbai from Ahmedabad.

The other accused IPS officer, D G Vanzara, was brought back to Ahmedabad in connection with the case of alleged encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others and remains lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail. Former minister of state for home and BJP leader Amit Shah, who is out on bail, is also an accused in the case.