New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine some aspects of a high court verdict that acquitted 22 persons, 21 of them policemen from Gujarat and Rajasthan, in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh-Kausar Bi “fake” encounter case. The acquittals were first ordered by a trial court on December 21, 2018, a verdict the high court upheld on May 7, 2026.“We would like to see statements of some witnesses. We are not summoning the record… You give us whatever 3-4 statements you feel are vital. We will examine acquittal,” said Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, while hearing the case on Monday (September 28).Tulsiram Prajapati, an associate of Shaikh, a businessman, and his wife Kausar Bi, was the sole surviving witness to the alleged abductions and killings. He was killed in another “encounter” which occurred while he was in police custody. All three cases are being heard together.The bench comprising Justice Joymalya Baghchi and Justice V. Mohana, apart from CJI Kant, said that notices must be issued to the 22 acquitted persons. It also observed that the case drew their attention because 92 of the prosecution’s witnesses had turned hostile during the trial.Justice Bagchi observed during the hearing, “ninety-two witnesses turning hostile is a serious concern. Although it was a concurrent finding, whether there was a fair and just trial – that is to be considered”, Live Law reports. CJI Kant reportedly agreed.Turning hostile implies that the witnesses had not backed in court what was recorded in their statements. This had started happening at the trial stage itself, and was a key reason for the cases falling through. In criminal trials, the prosecution is led by the state.Also read: Sohrabuddin Fake Encounter Case: A Timeline of EventsCJI Kant, Live Law reports, noted on Monday that “Para 43, we will not examine. We will not allow this kind of…”.Para 43 in the high court verdict refers to Amit Shah, Union home minister, who was Gujarat home minister at the time of the three killings. Specifically, the high court notes that an application had been filed in 2026 seeking a reversal of Shah’s acquittal (discharge) in the case in December 2014.The high court found this application to be “led with an oblique motive and [filed] at the instance of some political adversary of Shah’s.” The CBI, too, had opposed this application.In May, while pronouncing its verdict, the Bombay high court had observed, “The trial court applied the correct and settled legal principles in law. Its conclusions are not contrary to the evidence and documents on record.”“As many as 92 witnesses turned hostile and did not support the prosecution story of the killing of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati in a fake encounter in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy between the police officers, politicians etc.,” the high court held.The Sohrabuddin encounter killing has been through multiple twists and turns since it was registered on November 26, 2005 by a Gujarat Police constable from its anti-terrorism wing. In 2006, following a Supreme Court order, the case was sent to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID).In 2010, again after the Supreme Court’s intervention on an appeal by Sohrabuddin’s brother, Rubabuddin, the CBI was directed to pursue further investigation. In 2012, the Supreme Court transferred the case to a special court in Maharashtra.Since 2013, the cases related to the killing of all three cases have been heard together.The cases drew attention across the nation as the trial was transferred repeatedly, the witnesses turned hostile and because the allegation was of political-police nexus leading to the encounter killings.After the CBI had stepped into the investigation, 38 people were booked under the case, including senior police officers, former Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria and Amit Shah, then home minister of Gujarat.As The Wire previously reported, the CBI chargesheet accused Shah of running a criminal extortion racket that Sohrabuddin had worked for in Rajasthan. Call data records cited by the CBI claimed that Shah made several calls to the accused officers, including deputy inspector general D.G. Vanzara and officer Dinesh M.N., around the time of Prajapati’s encounter. The frequency of these calls increased whenever there were developments in the case.The trial judge held that there was not an “iota of evidence” that any politician was involved in the conspiracy or there was a politician-police nexus which led to fake encounters” in which the three were murdered.“Therefore, the exercise undertaken by CBI investigators and CID Crime and the evidence as adduced by prosecution and even the investigator themselves if [seen] in its totality do not either prove nor even prima facie established such nexus,” the court held.The CBI, too, decided not to appeal against the 2018 verdict of the special court that conducted the trial.The Supreme Court has now said that it would see if the trial had been just and fair and that it was keen to go over how the witnesses testified and how 92 persons could turn hostile.