Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court today rejected the bail plea of Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarun Barot, one of the accused in the 2003 Sadik Jamal encounter case.

Justice A S Dave, while rejecting the bail application, noted that CBI, in its charge sheet, had prima facie found Barot's involvement in the case.

The charge sheet says that Barot went to Mumbai in January 2003 and brought Sadik to Gujarat before the alleged encounter, the court noted.

Co-accused and former Mumbai journalist Ketan Tirodakar, who had claimed that Sadik was not killed in encounter but was murdered, too had given a statement against Barot, the HC noted.

Earlier, special CBI court in January rejected Barot's bail plea, noting that as per the central agency's case, "prima facie Sadik was taken from Mumbai by DSP Tarun Barot on January 3, 2003 and Sadik was last seen with him before he was killed in cold blood".

Barot was arrested by the CBI on September 26 last year. The CBI has also said that he was a part of the police team which carried out the encounter. He is facing charges under sections 302 (murder), 120(B)(criminal conspiracy), and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code.

Sadik Jamal, a resident of Bhavnagar, was killed in encounter by the Gujarat police in Ahmedabad on January 13, 2003.

Genuineness of the encounter came under a cloud after Tirodkar filed an affidavit before a Mumbai court saying that he was witness to Jamal being handed over to Gujarat police by "encounter specialist" officer Daya Nayak of Mumbai police.

Courtesy by PTI