Sohrabuddin ‘encounter’: Official denies dealing with letter on Prajapati assault in Udaipur prison

Of the 78 witnesses, who have deposed so far, 53 have turned hostile. On Friday, the witness told the court that he had been a junior clerk in the collector’s and district magistrate’s office in Udaipur in 2005-06.

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Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife. (File)

In the alleged fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, an official from the collector’s office in Udaipur denied that he had dealt with a letter from the latter, on being assaulted at Udaipur jail in 2006. The prosecution witness was declared hostile by the CBI special prosecutor. Of the 78 witnesses, who have deposed so far, 53 have turned hostile. On Friday, the witness told the court that he had been a junior clerk in the collector’s and district magistrate’s office in Udaipur in 2005-06. He added that he had to deal with applications of 32 subjects, which he used to forward to the department concerned.

“Among the applications received by him were those pertaining to prisoners’ parole, permission for firecracker licences or programmes in public places. I did not receive applications of ill-treatment by the police,” he told the court. In his statement before the CBI in 2011, he said that he had received a letter dated May 11, 2006 from Udaipur jail, sent by Prajapati and two of his co-inmates, who had complained that they were severely assaulted by the prison authorities and prayed for their safety inside the jail. He had further told the CBI in 2011 that the letter was forwarded to the Udaipur superintendent of police.

During his deposition on Friday, the witness told the court that he did not know who the collector was in 2006. He added that since he reported to the additional district magistrates (ADMs), he would only be able to recollect their names. In his earlier statement, he had claimed to have forwarded the letter after due attestation by the ADMs, while on Thursday, he told the court that he had not seen the letter.

When asked by CBI prosecutor B P Raju regarding the CBI inquiry, the witness told the court that only his name, age and address were taken down. He also denied having given copies of the letter to the CBI then. The two-page letter, signed by Prajapati and two of his co-inmates, mentioned the prison authorities’ assault on them on March 25, 2006 and had claimed that it was a conspiracy to kill them.

According to the CBI, Prajapati had allegedly told his co-inmates that the assault was a warning by policemen, who did not want him to speak about the abduction of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi in November 2005, to which he was an eyewitness. So far, one of the two co-inmates mentioned in the letter, deposed and had denied that Prajapati told him about the assault being a ‘warning’. The other inmate has not been served summons to appear before the court as he is currently wanted in criminal cases and is on the run.

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