Sohrabuddin Shaikh case: 2 more witnesses turn hostile, taking count to 38

When asked by the prosecutor about the body kept in the post-mortem room, the second witness said it had no clothes on. In his earlier statement, the witness had said the body was clothed and that it had blood spots.

THE trial in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh case saw two more witnesses turning hostile on Tuesday, taking the count of witnesses who have not supported the prosecution case to 38. So far, 55 witnesses have deposed including eyewitnesses, policemen, forensic officials and panch witnesses. The two men told the court on Tuesday that they had signed a panchnama after the encounter on November 26, 2005 but denied that hand wash samples of Sohrabuddin was taken in their presence. While they confirmed that they had signed on the panchnama, they denied most of its contents.

The two men told the court on Tuesday that on November 26, 2005, they were returning from a temple and were stopped by two policemen near Civil Hospital. They said in their statement to CBI in 2010 that the policemen told them that an accused Sohrabuddin was killed in police action and his body was lying in the post-mortem room of the hospital. They were asked to act as panch witnesses when the handwash of Sohrabuddin was taken and seized. They had earlier told the CBI that they went to the post-mortem room where an officer took a wet cotton ball and rubbed it on the left hand of Sohrabuddin and put the cotton in a plastic container. The same was repeated with the right hand and they were made to sign on the panchnama and labels of the seizures.

On Tuesday, the men, however, said they only signed on the panchnama but no hand wash was done before them. Hand wash samples are taken in encounter cases as part of the investigation to determine the presence of gunpowder, left from firing a weapon on the dead person’s hand to prove that he/she had fired. “We were taken to the post-mortem room. There was a male dead body. We just signed where we were asked to and left,” the first witness told the court. He also added that he got scared looking at the body and left immediately after signing on the panchnama.

The second witness, when asked by special public prosecutor B P Raju, if he had seen the hand wash being taken, told the court that he had only signed the panchnama and left. “Mere saamne kuch nahi hua. Khali sign liya (Nothing happened in front of me. I only signed,” the witness told the court. While both identified their signatures on the panchnama document, they feigned ignorance when shown their signatures on labels on the plastic containers which had the hand wash samples.

“It looks like my signature, but I cannot say for sure. It bears similarity to mine but I do not remember signing it as it has been more than 10-12 years,” the first witness said. While he identified the signatures on one of the two labels, he said the second signature was not his. The second witness also told the court that he did not remember how many times he was made to sign as it had been many years ago. When shown the plastic containers, however, the witness said he had only signed on the panchnama and nowhere else.

When asked by the prosecutor about the body kept in the post-mortem room, the second witness said it had no clothes on. In his earlier statement, the witness had said the body was clothed and that it had blood spots. The two also did not identify any policemen present in the courtroom as those who were present at the post-mortem room on the day the panchnama. “I could not see them properly that day,” the second witness told the court.

Meanwhile, two other witnesses were also called for deposition. But it was deferred after a request for adjournment from three accused, whose lawyers were not available.

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