Sohrabuddin case: 61 witnesses turn hostile so far

Two more prosecution witnesses in the alleged Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake

encounter cases turned hostile before a special CBI court here today, taking the number of such witnesses to 61.

Hazari Lal Meena, a former sub-inspector with Udaipur police, deposed before the CBI judge S J Sharma.

According to the agency, Meena, now retired, had said in his statement that on the evening of December 24, 2006, Superintendent of Police Dinesh M N (a former accused in the case) asked him not to provide escort police party for

prisoners--Prajapati and Azam Khan--who were to be taken to an Ahmedabad court from the Udaipur jail the next day.

 

Meena was part of the reserve police who provided escort parties for prisoners.

As per Meena's statement, the police had information that Prajapati might try to flee, so Dinesh told him that a special team would escort them.

However, in the court today, Meena denied receiving any such order. He said he did not know who escorted Prajapati or if a special team was arranged for it.

According to the police, Prajapati fled while being taken to Ahmedabad and was killed in an encounter on December 28, 2006. As per the CBI, he was killed in a staged encounter, as he was an eye-witness to Shaikh's death in a fake encounter earlier.

Meena alleged that the CBI forced him to record a statement before a magistrate. The prosecution then declared him as hostile.

Govind Singh, another witness who deposed today, was posted as an inspector at Surjapol police station, Udaipur. He had told the CBI that he made entry in the police station's 'roznama' (diary) about departure of four police officials -- who were part of a special task force working on the direction of Dinesh M N -- on December 25, 2006.

As per the CBI, these four policemen were part of the team which took Prajapati to Ahmedabad.

However, Singh today denied making the roznama entry, following which he was also declared hostile.

The court has so far examined over 88 prosecution witnesses, of whom 61 have turned hostile.

Shaikh, a suspected gangster with terror links, and his wife were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police in November, 2005. His aide Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December, 2006.

Of the 38 people charged by the CBI, 15, including senior IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Dinesh M N and BJP chief Amit Shah (then home minster of Gujarat) were discharged by the Mumbai court.