'CBI chargesheet in Tulsi case proves cover-up by Guj cops'

Former minister of state for Home Amit Shah was among 20 people, including high-ranking cops, who were named by CBI in its chargesheet for allegedly entering into criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the 2006 fake encounter case.

Former state police chief P C Pande, IPS officers O P Mathur, D G Vanzara and Geetha Johri and Dy SP R K Patel were also named in the chargesheet submitted by the agency in the court of judicial magistrate D R Joshi at Danta in Banaskantha district yesterday.

"These were the people who got the hint of exposure of their crime of killing Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi, when CID (Crime) in 2006 filed three interim reports in Supreme Court naming Vanzara and others. Hence they eliminated the only surviving eye witness Tulsi," advocate Mukul Sinha, who is representing Tulsi's mother Narmadabai, told reporters here.

Tulsi Prajapati, an eye witness in the encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat police at Chhapri in Banaskantha district on December 28, 2006.

Sinha said that the chargesheet naming cops, who were posted at "high-ranking and controlling positions" at the time of the encounter, would prove a "turning point in exposing the whole conspiracy hatched by politicians of Gujarat and Rajasthan and executed by police". (More)