In the hearing of Sohrabuddin Encounter Case on Thursday, the special CBI court of Mumbai discharged former Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria and Vimal Patni, marble trader citing ‘insufficient’ evidence. 

When the court announced the verdict on Thursday, Kataria was in Vidhan Sabha. Lawyer Roshanlal Jain gave him the news over the telephone. For the completion of the formalities, he will depart for Mumbai on Friday.

Gulab Chand Kataria quoted, “I had a firm belief that I would come out clean in this case. When I came out of Vidhan Sabha I told the media that if I were found guilty, I would never step into Vidhan Sabha again.”

According to the CBI charge sheet, gangster Sohrabuddin wanted to spread his extortion racket in Rajasthan and had demanded Rs. 24 Crore as protection money from Patni who then approached Kataria for help. Kataria allegedly got in touch with Amit Shah who later allegedly plotted the entire operation with the help of Gujarat police, the charge sheet said, claiming Rajasthan’s former minister was the link between Patni and the present BJP chief. “There is also no evidence to show that Kataria met Shah in connection with the encounter,” observed judge Gosavi, adding there was no sufficient ground for CBI to book Patni and Kataria for murder and conspiracy.

Sohrabuddin Case: on 31^st May, 2004 Udaipur’s history sheeter Hamid Lala was murdered. In this case, Sohrabuddin, Tulsi Prajapati and Udaipur’s resident Mohammad Azam were the prime accused. The reason for murder was amid controversy over illegal collection.

After this, the marble business witnessed threat after the build-up of Sohrabuddin’s gang. As he was most wanted in Gujarat, Sohrabuddin was arrested from Andhra Pradesh.