Sohrabuddin case: Prajapati feared for his life, cellmate tells court

A prison cellmate of Tulsiram Prajapati, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter, today told a special CBI court that he had expressed fear for his life at the hands of the Gujarat Police and had even written to the National Human Rights Commission about this.

Dinesh Gurjar (64) was deposing before a special court, conducting trial against several Gujarat Police officials for carrying out alleged fake encounters of Prajapati in December 2006, and his associate Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi, in 2005.

Gurjar was the co-inmate of Prajapati in 2006 in Udaipur Central Jail.

He today told the court that Prajapati had, at that time, told him that Gujarat Police had killed his friend Sohrabuddin and his wife and that he feared he too would face the same fate.

The witness deposed that Prajapati had told him that he and Sohrabuddin had tried to extort around Rs 25 crore from a Gujarat-based businessman who complained to a senior bureaucrat who in turn got Sohrabuddin killed in a police encounter.

Gurjar added that, according to Prajapati, when Sohrabuddin was picked up by the police, his wife Kausar Bi insisted on accompanying him and, hence, she too was killed.

The witness further said that he had drafted letters on behalf of Prajapati, in which the latter express his fears, and sent it to various authorities including the National Human Rights Commission.

"On December 25, 2006 Prajapati was taken by the police from Udaipur jail to Ahmedabad for his case hearing. Two days later, we were told that Prajapati had escaped from police custody. The next day, we came to know that he was killed in an encounter," Gurjar said.

Gurjar is the 96th witness to depose before the court in the trial. So far, 60 witnesses have turned hostile in the case.