Prajapati told me about Soharabuddin's fake encounter: Brother

Sohrabuddin Shaikh's brother said here Saturday that Tulsiram Prajapti had told him about Shaikh's alleged abduction by the Gujarat Police and subsequent death in a fake encounter in November 2005.

Prajapati, Sohrabuddin's associate, was himself killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2006.

Rubabuddin Shaikh, Sohrabuddin's brother, deposed before the special CBI court here.

He stood by his statement to the CBI that his brother Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter while Sohrabuddin's wife Kausar Bi was raped and later killed by police.

"Sohrabuddin's associate Tulsi Prajapati had told me he was present when my brother was killed. When I asked him why he was not killed, he said as he was a Hindu, he could not be branded as a terrorist along with Sohrabuddin, a Muslim," Rubabuddin Shaikh told the court.

A relative told him on November 26, 2005 that Sohrabuddin had been killed and the family will have to claim the body from the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, he said.

"We went to Ahmedabad to claim the body. We visited the Anti-Terrorist Squad office where I asked an officer why my brother was killed and also asked about Kausar Bi's whereabouts," Rubabuddin said.

He got no reply, he said, adding that he also wrote a letter to the Gujarat Police but did not get any response.

"In January 2007 I filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking action against Gujarat and the Rajasthan Police officials involved in the encounter. I also filed a Habeas Corpus (produce the person) petition seeking to know the whereabouts of Kausar Bi.

"The Gujarat government, in response, informed the Supreme Court that she too had been killed," Rubabuddin said.

Sohrabuddin Shaikh, an alleged gangster with links with terrorists, and his wife were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005 by the Gujarat Police.

His aide Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter in 2006 by Gujarat and the Rajasthan Police.

Of the 38 people charged by the CBI in the case, 16, including BJP chief Amit Shah and senior officers of Gujarat and the Rajasthan Police, were discharged by the trial court.