Jamnagar Custodial Death Case: The Gujarat High Court on Friday (May 6) passed an order suspending the life imprisonment of three Indian Air Force (IAF) officers. Along with this, conditional bail has also been given to all three. The three officers were convicted last year by a special court in the 28-year-old case of custodial death.
A division bench of Justice SH Vora and Justice SV Pinto granted bail to all three with a condition that they would not leave the country and remain present during the hearing of their petition filed against the conviction.
CBI court had sentenced
A special CBI court had sentenced Air Force’s retired Group Captain Anup Sood, retired Sergeant Anil KN and serving Sergeant Mahendra Singh Sherawat to life imprisonment in the 1995 custodial death case at Jamnagar Air Force Station. The decision of the CBI court was challenged by all three in the High Court.
The bench on Friday suspended the sentence of retired Group Captain Anoop Sood, retired Sergeant Anil KN and serving Sergeant Mahender Singh Sherawat, saying the convicts “get a fair chance to be acquitted and those booked under sections 302, 348, 177 The conviction imposed read with Section 120-B of IPC is clearly wrong and the conviction cannot be sustainable.
High Court suspended sentence
After the hearing, the High Court suspended the life sentence of the three, saying that the culprits should get a fair chance to be acquitted. The court said that the conviction recorded under sections 120-B read with 302, 348 and 177 of the IPC is clearly wrong and cannot be sustainable for conviction.
what was the matter
In 1995, Girja Rawat, who worked as a cook at the Air Force’s Jamnagar station, died in custody. In this case, 8 accused were made accused in the murder case. Three of the accused were acquitted, while one died during the trial. Three were convicted, including two retired and one serving officer. Another accused, JS Sidhu, the then chief of Jamnagar Air Force Police, is absconding.
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