Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court judge Justice M
R Shah on Monday rescued himself from hearing a petition filed by
IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma seeking quashing of a nine-year-old
criminal complaint against him.
When the matter came up for hearing today, Justice Shah
said `not before me` and asked the high court registry to send
the case to the Chief Justice who will decide on who would be
hearing the matter.
According to Sharma`s counsel IH Syed, Justice Shah had
earlier appeared as an advocate for police officer Kirit
Bhrambhatt, who had filed a case against Sharma in 2002. And
therefore Shah rescued himself from hearing the case.
As per the case details, while Sharma was Range IG
Ahmedabad in 2001, he had ordered arrest of Bhrambhatt in
connection with a two-year-old case where the police had
already filed a closure report.
Bhrambhatt had filed a complaint against Sharma saying a
team of 20 armed policemen arrived at his residence on October
23, 2001, and illegally confined him there for over 24 hours
apparently on orders of the IPS officer.
He was released only after the intervention of the then
DGP, Bhrambhatt had said in his complaint.
Sharma in his petition has sought quashing of the
criminal complaint and the orders of the chief judicial
magistrate of Anand district by which the criminal cognizance
was taken on the private complaint of Bhrambhatt against
Sharma following which summons were issued to him.
Sharma has also alleged in his petition that the criminal
complaint was filed `to wreak vengeance and to settle personal
scores` with him.
He has further challenged the sanction given by the state
Home department in March 2011 to prosecute him in a case
registered in October 2001.
In his petition, Sharma has contended that since Chief
Minister Narendra Modi was `having a biased attitude towards
him` government acted in a prejudiced manner and gave sanction
for his prosecution in the nine-year-old case.
Sharma, who is on deputation in Delhi, recently won a
case in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) against
Gujarat government over low-grading in his Annual Confidential
Report (ACR) contending that he was being targeted by the
state government for his proactive approach in the 2005
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
PTI
