Bhuj (Gujarat) | More than four decades after he assaulted Congress leader Abdul Haji Ibrahim who had raised purported harassment of innocent people by police, retired IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma was on Monday convicted by a court and sentenced to a 3-month imprisonment.

Sharma was the superintendent of police of Kutch district when the incident occurred in May 1984.

The court of additional chief judicial magistrate BM Prajapati, Bhuj, also sentenced former police inspector GH Vasavada to three-month imprisonment.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on Sharma and Vasavada who were convicted under section 342 of the Indian Penal Code for wrongfully confining Abdul Haji Ibrahim (now deceased) in his office in 1984.

The trial in the four-decade-old case was expedited after the Supreme Court directed the Bhuj court to complete the proceedings within three months, the complainant's lawyer said.

A complaint was filed in the Bhuj court by Shankar Joshi, who was part of a Congress delegation including Ibrahim, seeking action against Sharma, Vasavada, and two other accused (who are now deceased) under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

"The court held Kuldeep Sharma and Vasavada guilty under section 342 of the IPC and sentenced them to three-month jail and Rs 1,000 fine each," Joshi's lawyer RS Gadhvi said.

As per the complaint, a delegation from Nalia town in Kutch district comprising the complainant Joshi, Ibrahim, and local MLAs, had gone to meet Sharma at the SP office in Bhuj on May 6, 1984.

The delegation raised the alleged harassment of innocent people by police in connection with an offence registered at a police station there, the complaint stated.

When Sharma learnt about Ibrahim being a part of the delegation, he took him to an adjoining room and beat him up using a stick, joined by then police inspector Vasavada and other accused.

Joshi had witnessed the assault, Gadhvi said.

After the complaint was filed by Joshi in the Bhuj court, a process was issued against Sharma who approached the Gujarat High Court to quash the legal action.

The HC turned down Sharma's application, following which he applied for a regular bail in Bhuj court on the ground that the government had not sanctioned his prosecution which is necessary since he was a public servant, Gadhvi said.

After the Bhuj court rejected Sharma's bail plea, he approached the high court and sought permission to file a fresh bail application in the lower court, which was allowed.

Meanwhile, the complainant approached the state government, which granted its sanction to prosecute Sharma and Vasavada in February 2012, nearly 28 years after the complaint was lodged against them.

Sharma challenged the sanction for prosecution in the sessions court and the HC. He approached the Supreme Court after the high court turned down his plea. The apex court directed the Bhuj court to complete the case proceedings within three months, Gadhvi said.

Sharma and his brother, suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, were in the cross-hairs of the then state government.

Kuldeep Sharma, who joined IPS in 1976, had played a prominent role as the head of the state CID in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case.

A separate case of fake encounter was registered against Sharma on an application filed by a Kutch resident Jusab Juma Mokha, who alleged five members of his family were killed by police in 1984 when Sharma was the superintendent of police in Kutch district.

The High Court in August 2010 quashed the FIR against Sharma in the encounter case.

In September 2015, nearly a year after his retirement, Sharma joined the Congress party.