Gujarat top cop gets reprieve in alleged shootout case

AHMEDABAD - Justice R.H. Shukla of the Gujarat High Court Tuesday quashed the first information report (FIR) filed by the state police against its own Additional Director General of Police Kuldip Sharma in a 26-year-old alleged staged shootout case.

Sharma, who in terms of seniority is in the line for the job of the director general of the state police, was recently charged with murder after the Gujarat police pulled out the case of an alleged shootout that took place in Kutch district in 1984 when Sharma was its police chief.

A case was filed against him, then the sub-inspector involved in the shootout, but Sharma was subsequently acquitted of the charges.

Sharma moved the high court to quash the FIR filed more than a quarter century ago.

His counsel argued before the court that Sharma’s name did not figure in the matter then. The lawyer alleged that the present government filed the FIR to victimise the police officer, who had alleged bias on the part of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Sharma was posted out as managing director of the Gujarat State Sheep and Wolf Development Corporation after he fell foul of the present government.

His brother Pradeep Sharma, a senior IAS officer, is already in jail for more than seven months on an alleged corruption charge for acts committed during his stint as the district collector of Kutch. Both brothers have alleged victimisation by the Modi government.