Surendranagar A court in Gujarat’s Surendranagar has rejected the closure report issued by the Special Investigation Team into the killing of a wanted criminal and his minor son in police action in 2021 and directed that a criminal case be registered against seven policemen.
The court also issued summonses and ordered police officers to appear before it on August 8.
In the July 18 order, which was made available on Wednesday, Judicial Magistrate First Class KP Sharma allowed the petition filed by the wife of deceased Hanif Khan Sohanaben, seeking dismissal of the CIT’s summary in a case against seven policemen, her lawyer Puneet Dave said.
A “C Summary Report” is a closure report filed by the police when an investigation concludes that a case is “neither true nor false.”
Dave said the court ordered registration of a criminal case against the seven policemen under Sections 302 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code and issued summons to them on August 8.
The incident took place on November 6, 2021, in Gediya village in Dasada taluka of Surendranagar district, when a team of policemen opened fire on Hanif Khan Malik, a wanted criminal, and his minor son, claiming that they were attacked by a mob when they went to arrest him.
But the petitioner alleged that the policemen, while trying to arrest Malik, fired two random shots without any provocation, killing him and his son.
Dave said the incident was portrayed as a real encounter and even after repeated efforts by the petitioner, no FIR was registered against the accused policemen.
Later, an FIR was registered against seven policemen in May 2025 based on a court order, and a special investigation team was formed to investigate the incident.
The SIT, headed by then Dhanjadra Deputy Superintendent of Police G D Purohit, submitted a ‘Summary C’ report to the court two months later, prompting Sohanaben to file a review petition claiming that the closure report was aimed at protecting the accused policemen.
Dave said that all important evidence, including statements of eyewitnesses who were present at the time of the incident and the FSL report, were produced before the court.
“The court considered the forensic report and eyewitness statements while rejecting the summary report against Assistant Police Inspector V N Jadeja and six other policemen. The court also issued summons to them and directed them to appear before it on August 8,” he added.
He said that eyewitness testimonies and the FSL report indicated that there was no evidence to support the police claim of shooting in “self-defense.”
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