Guj to pay Rs10 L compensation to Sohrabuddin’s family

The Gujarat government agreed in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday to pay Rs10 lakh to the family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Sohrabuddin and wife Kauser Bi were gunned down by the state’s trigger-happy police in a fake encounter in November 2005.

Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Aftab Alam asked the Narendra Modi government to deposit the money in court for disbursement among family members of the victims, before deferring to September 2 the issue of transferring the case for further investigation to a special panel headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan.

During the proceedings, Gujarat government’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi informed the court that the government had acted on the court’s August 3 direction about payment of maintenance to the victims’ family.

“We accept it as we are quite desperate,” lawyer Dushyant Dave said. He added that Rubabuddin Sheikh was terminally ill with “stage III cancer.”

Justice Chatterjee too agreed with the offer. Justice Alam wanted the government to
increase the amount of compensation.

Dave also sought to raise a demand of compensation for Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s friend Tulsiram Prajapati, who too had allegedly been shot dead by the Gujarat police team in another fake encounter.