Sohrabuddin case: Number of hostile witnesses rises to 58

Another prosecution witness in the cases of encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati today turned hostile before a special CBI court here, taking the number of such witnesses to 58.

The Mumbai court has examined over 83 prosecution witnesses so far, of which 58 have turned hostile.

The witness, Nizamuddin, a constable with Rajasthan police, deposed before the special judge S J Sharma.

Earlier, Nizamuddin had told the CBI that police inspector Himmat Singh had informed him, as per the order of Assistant Superintendent of Police(ASP) Dinesh MN, that they needed to escort Tulsiram to Ahmedabad for production in a court there.

Tulsiram could escape from police custody, hence, police escort was necessary, he had said.

Accordingly, they took Tulsiram to Ahmedabad on November 11, 2006 and returned to Udaipur on November 13, he had told CBI.

However, in the court today, Nizamuddin denied giving any statement to the CBI, following which he was declared hostile.

Two prosecution witnesses, Jagdish Prajapati and Girish Patel, had turned hostile yesterday