Mumbai, Feb. 15 -- Over five years after he was appointed special public prosecutor (SPP) in the trial in the alleged fake encounter of gangster Sandeep Gadoli in 2016, the state government earlier this week removed lawyer Amin Solkar from the case at a time when the case was reserved for judgement. The move comes seven months after a sessions court rejected Solkar's plea to arraign four more Haryana police officers as accused in the case. Solkar was appointed special public prosecutor in the case on December 15, 2020. A notification issued by the state law and judiciary department on February 11 stated: "In view of the recommendation received from Home Department, the Government of Maharashtra hereby cancels the appointment of Advocate Amin M Solkar as "Special Public Prosecutor" for conducting the case in Sessions Court, Mumbai and Hon'ble High Court, Mumbai.." Solkar said he received an email from the state law and judiciary department informing him about the cancellation. "I am not aware why my appointment has been cancelled at this stage when the judgement is reserved. It is something that no one can understand," Solkar said on Saturday. Asked if his plea to make four more Haryana police officers accused in the case was the reason behind his removal, Solkar said, "Maybe it did not go down well." The case pertains to the killing of Sandeep Gadoli, a notorious gangster from Haryana, who was shot dead in a hotel near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, by a team of officers from the Haryana Police. While an offence was registered at the MIDC police station, the case was investigated by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch. Eight people including police officers, Gadoli's alleged girlfriend Divya Pahuja and her mother, were named as accused in the case. Pahuja was later shot dead in January, 2024 in Gurugram, months after she was released on bail. Recently, Solkar had sought the court's permission to add four more officers of the Haryana police including a deputy commissioner of police, as co-accused in the case. Solkar argued that during the trial, testimonies of four key witnesses pointed to the involvement of the officers in a larger conspiracy to eliminate Gadoli. His application was, however, rejected by the trial court. Solkar, a criminal lawyer with a practice of 40 years, has earlier represented several accused in high profile criminal cases and was also appointed by the court to defend Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist tried in Mumbai for the 26/11 terror attack of 2008. According to the prosecution team, Solkar had appeared in the case through Covid-19 in 2021, examined 43 prosecution witnesses and defended the state's case against the accused right up to the Supreme Court. The Home Department did not respond to HT's queries about the cancellation of Solkar's appointment....