Jailed ‘encounter’ cop seeks details on ACP Chavda

Aggrawal had filed the RTI on November 7 in Gandhinagar asking Chavda’s current post in the crime branch,his income and assets. The RTI comes during the time when the state government is contemplating to promote the 2005 batch of DySPs to SP rank,which includes Chavda too.

The application also sought details asking the government to specify the reasons behind his particular postings in state special police agencies every time.

Chavda was posted in the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in 2011. After serving in the agency for almost two years,he was shifted to the CID (intelligence) for a brief period. He was again shifted back to the Crime Branch.

During the Tulsriam Prajapati encounter in 2006,Aggarwal was the SP of Banaskantha district and Chavda was a probationary DySP in Palanpur. Aggarwal had allegedly asked Chavda to work on the encounter case and file a report justifying that it was genuine.

Chavda,although a probationary officer,had prepared a report in the case calling the encounter genuine and reportedly stated that Banaskantha special operation group had to shot Tulsiram as he was escaping from their custody while being taken back to Udaipur Central jail from Ahmedabad after a court hearing. The report was in support of the police theory.

However,the CBI investigations had shown that Tulsiram,who was brought to Ahmedabad for a court hearing,was taken to Ambaji town in Banaskantha district and killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat and Rajasthan Police as he was a witness to the abduction of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi.

Chavda,however,became a witness for CBI and testified against Aggarwal and other policemen who conspired and plotted to kill Tulsiram. The CBI chargesheeted jailed DIG D G Vanzara,suspended SP Rajkumar Pandian,suspended Rajasthan SP Dinesh M N and retired IPS officers Geetha Johri,O P Mathur and former investigator of the case DySP R K Patel.

“I haven’t seen the application yet. We can decide on it only after we see the application and discuss with the officials,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S K Nanda said.

Aggarwal is lodged in Palanpur sub-jail in Banaskantha since last three years along with his then SOG personnel and suspended police inspector Ashish Pandya.