Sohrabuddin, Tulsiram ‘fake’ encounter cases: Witness tells court he never gave SIM card to accused cop, declared hostile

On Wednesday, the witness denied the parts of his earlier statement, where he had claimed that Gujarat policeman Ashish Pandya would frequently visit his shop and that he had given a SIM card to him in 2006.

Tulsiram Prajapati (File)

In the alleged fake encounter case of Tulsiram Prajapati, a prosecution witness, who had claimed to have given a SIM card to the accused Gujarat policeman Ashish Pandya, on Wednesday, denied that he even knows the policeman.

The witness, in an earlier statement, had told the CBI, that he had a mobile repair and accessories shop in Jetpur in Gujarat’s Rajkot district. On Wednesday, he denied the parts of his statement, where he had claimed that Pandya would frequently visit his shop and that he had given a SIM card to him in 2006.

In his earlier statement, he had said that as Pandya had not been allotted staff quarters, he was living in a guest house. On Wednesday, when the special public prosecutor BP Raju asked about it, the witness told the court that there was no guest house near his shop.

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The witness did not recognise Pandya, who was present in the courtroom. The prosecution declared him hostile. So far, 157 witnesses have deposed, of which 89 have turned hostile.

The other witness who deposed in court on Wednesday was a nodal officer of BSNL. He submitted before the court that the CBI had sought call data records and Customer Application Forms of a few numbers including that of accused policemen Vinodkumar Limbachiya and Kiransingh Chauhan.

The CBI also submitted a list of witnesses it wants to examine including Tulsiram Prajapati’s nephew and a journalist, who had written about the arrest of Prajapati in November 2005.

The court again directed the CBI superintendent to remain present before the court on Thursday regarding the witnesses’ list submitted on Wednesday.

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