Prajapati encounter case: SC refuses bail plea of IPS officer

A bench headed by Chief Justice dismissed the plea of Vipul Shital Prasad Agarwal who had sought relief on the ground that the CBI had failed to filed charge sheet in the case in the stipulated period after taking over the probe from the CID.

Agarwal was arrested by the state CID on May 3, 2010. The probe in the case was later on given to the CBI on the direction of the apex court. The central agency then filed a fresh FIR in the case.

He contended that after registering a fresh FIR and commencing of fresh investigation, the CBI had failed to file charge sheet within the stipulated period of 90 days, and he was entitled to bail on account of such default.

The bench, however, was not satisfied and held that he was arrested according to the FIR lodged by the CID and in that case charge sheet was filed within 90 days.

It said that the earlier charge sheet continues to stand as it has not been quashed.

"The submission that since a fresh investigation was directed to be conducted by this court, the earlier charge sheet must be deemed to have been quashed, has to be rejected," the bench said.

According to the CBI, Prajapati was a witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and his killing was part of a larger conspiracy.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Prajapati, said to be Sohrabuddin's accomplice, was also subsequently eliminated by ATS because he was an eye witness to the couple's killings, the CBI had said.