Sohrabuddin case: Witness seeks court permission to depose at non-scheduled time

A Special CBI court, holding trials in the alleged fake encounter cases of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, today sought the CBI stand on a witness' plea to let him depose at a non-scheduled time and not on a specific date as he feared for his life.

Witness Azam Khan, a friend of Sheikh and a cell mate of Prajapati at one point of time in Udaipur jail, made the plea in a handwritten letter sent to the court through his wife Salma, another witness in the case.

Khan, an Udaipur resident, made the plea claiming that he knew the reason why Sheikh and Prajapati had been killed.

Special Judge S J Sharma sought the CBI stand on Khan's plea after keeping his letter for consideration.

Salma, who deposed before the court today, produced a handwritten application in Hindi.

She claimed the letter was written by her husband and he had stated in it that he knew the reason behind the killing of Sheikh and Prajapati.

"I want to personally come and depose before the court, but I have a fear that these people will do my encounter or they can frame me in a big case," Khan's letter stated.

"Hence, I cannot depose before court on a specific date. I request the court to record my statement whenever I come," the letter added.

The special CBI court has so far examined 119 witnesses in the alleged twin fake encounter cases.

Of these, over 70 witnesses have turned hostile.

Sheikh, a suspected gangster with terror links, and his wife, Kauser Bi, were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat police in November 2005.

His aide, Prajapati, too was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the personnel from the Gujarat and the Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 people charged by the CBI, 15, including senior IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Dinesh MN, and BJP chief Amit Shah (then the Minister of State for Home in Gujarat) have been discharged by the court.