A Gandhidham Sessions Court in Kutch district has sentenced an Assistant Sub-Inspector to life term in jail in connection with a 2004 case. ASI Manjibhai Dabhi was awarded the punishment by fast track court judge C H Koshti on Wednesday for killing one Dinesh Navubha Jadeja alias Bako on April 15, 2004 inside Bhachau police station.

Bako had gone to Bhachau police station to meet his friend Devendra Thakkar alias Devo, who had been picked up by the police on April 14, 2004 under the Goondas Act to prevent disturbance during the ensuing general elections.

He tried to convince on- duty ASI Dabhi to release Thakkar and entered into a verbal altercation with him. Following the heated exchange, ASI Dabhi fired at Bako from his service revolver injuring him seriously. Bako died on way to hospital.

Following the incident, Bhachau police registered a complaint making Bako an accused under Section 307 of the IPC. Bako was shown as assaulting ASI Dabhi and trying to snatch his service revolver, leaving Dabhi with no option but to kill him in self-defence. The case was closed after filing an A-summary showing lack of evidence as the reason.

Mahendrasinh Jadeja, brother of the deceased, filed a slew of petitions with the Gujarat government leading to the legal department ordering CID (Crime) to reinvestigate the case in 2005.

The then DCP (CID) N D Solanki investigated the case with IGP (CID) Keshav Kumar as the supervising officer. “We proved with the assistance of forensic experts that the local police story was false and that the victim was killed by the ASI. The injuries that ASI Dabhi showed as occurring from the scuffle with the deceased were also found to be fake. We used diagrams and ballistic maps to show how there had been no scuffle and that it was a clear case of murder. A doctor who carried out the autopsy on Jadeja also proved that the bullet that ripped through the victim's chest was from a direct assault,” said Solanki, now DCP (Zone-IV), Ahmedabad.