Sohrabuddin case: Did same policemen escort Prajapati earlier also, Bombay High Court asks CBI

Prajapati was allegedly killed by police officers at Chapri village in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.

Tulsiram Prajapati was allegedly killed by police officers at Chapri village in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.

The Bombay High Court Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to inform the court if the police officers who escorted Tulsiram Prajapati to a court in Ahmedabad before his alleged fake encounter had escorted him on prior occasions also. According to the chargesheet filed in the matter by the CBI, Prajapati was taken from Udaipur to Ahmedabad in connection with a criminal case on December 26, 2006. After the court proceedings were over the next day, they departed along with Prajapati from Ahmedabad for Udaipur. He was apparently escorted by four constables from Rajasthan police. According to the complaint filed by the constables, Prajapati managed to escape from the train after throwing chilli powder on two of the escorts while being taken to the toilet. Thereafter, Prajapati was killed on December 28, 2006 after a special team was formed to search for him.

The CBI, meanwhile, claimed Prajapati never travelled in the train back from Ahmedabad. “Prior to the visit from Udaipur to Ahmedabad, were they (police officers) part of other escort teams on several other occasions also? You (CBI) ask your officer to find out,” said Justice Revati Mohite-Dere.

The High Court was hearing three applications filed by Rubabuddin, challenging the discharge of former Deputy Inspector General of Gujarat D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N, who was the Udaipur SP at the time of the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter, and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan, along with two applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod and Gujarat police officer N K Amin. The court raised this query while hearing arguments by Dinesh’s advocate Raja Thakare.

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According to Thakare, it was an undisputed fact there was no sufficient staff available with the reserve police line to provide escorts to accompany Prajapati. Dinesh was then asked to provide additional staff for this. “The Surajpole police station was contacted as it was the nearest station. But the SP was not involved in choosing the police officers concerned,” said Thakare.

Dinesh is said to have been involved in the alleged fake encounters of Shaikh and Prajapati. Thakare said if there was any plan to eliminate Prajapati, “he would not have been kept in custody for a long time of one year”.

Meanwhile, Rubabuddin’s lawyer began arguments against the discharge of Rajkumar Pandiyan. He was discharged on July 25, 2016 and was allegedly involved in the encounters of Shaikh, his wife Kausarbi and Prajapati. Sohrabuddin, an alleged gangster who the Gujarat police claimed had “links with the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba”, and Kausarbi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat ATS from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli and killed in an alleged fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Prajapati was allegedly killed by police officers at Chapri village in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.

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