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Gujarat high court gives Kuldeep Sharma respite from arrest

Court stays senior IPS officer’s arrest till August 20; CID crime has accused cop of murder, kidnapping in encounter case.

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The Gujarat high court on Monday directed the state CID (crime) not to arrest or take coercive action against senior IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma till August 30, and issued notice to the state government in the case. The next hearing of the case is scheduled on August 20.

Justice RH Shukla of the high court passed this order while hearing Sharma's petition seeking quashing of the police case registered against him in a 26-year-old encounter case.
"The high court has instructed the CID not to arrest or take action against Sharma till August 20," said senior lawyer SV Raju who is representing the IPS officer.

Sharma, an additional director-general of police (ADGP), has been accused by the state CID of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy in connection with the encounter that took place in Kutch district 26 years ago. The IPS officer was then the district superintendent of police, Kutch district.

Justice Shukla passed his order after Raju argued that Sharma's name had never figured either in the police case or in the complaint filed before the court for the last 26 years. The lawyer further stated that the state government had opened the old case only to harass the IPS officer and, therefore, the FIR against him should be quashed.

Since November 2009, Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer, has been posted as managing director of the Gujarat Sheep and Wool Development Corporation.

Earlier, the Rajkot zone of the CID had registered a fresh police case against Sharma and other police officers for their alleged involvement in the encounter that took place in Kutch in May 1984. The IPS officer and the others have been charged under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping), 368 (wrongful confinement), and 506 (criminal intimidation), among others.

The case was registered in response to a petition submitted to the Gujarat DGP's office in February 2010 by one Jusab Juma Mokha of Kutch district. Mokha had sought a fresh investigation into a complaint filed in 1984, in which Sharma was held responsible for the death of two members of the Mokha family and the disappearance of three others after a police encounter.

Mokha has alleged in his complaint that Sharma had killed five members of his family, including his father, elder brother and uncles. He has also alleged that, after the killings, the IPS officer and the others had filed false cases against him and other members of his family.

Sharma meanwhile has refused to comment on the charges made against him.

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