Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case: 2 more witnesses turn hostile

MUMBAI: Two more prosecution witnesses in the cases of encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati today turned hostile before a special CBI court here, taking the number of such witnesses to 57.

The two witnesses, Jagdish Prajapati and Girish Patel, deposed before the special judge S J Sharma.

Jagdish Prajapati, who used to work as a phone operator at a government guest house in Ahmedabad, had told the CBI that he had handed over the guest register, pertaining to the period between November 13, 2006 to December 16, 2006, to the investigating agency.

He had stated that Himmat Singh, Abdul Rehman, Yudhveer Kartar, Dalpati Singh, Tej Singh and Budhnarayan, all Rajasthan police officials, had stayed at the guest house on November 28, 2006, and entry of their stay was mentioned in the register.

However in court today, Jagdish admitted he had handed over the register to the investigating agency but denied giving any statement about its content.

He said he started working at the guest house only in 2012 and wasn't aware of the content of the register.

Following this, he was declared hostile.

Another witness, Girish Patel, was working in the criminal department of the City Civil and Sessions Court, Bhadra, Ahmedabad, when Tulsiram and Mohammad Azam were brought, under police custody, to attend court on November 28, 2006.

He had told CBI that both Tulsiram and Azam were brought in the criminal department of the court.

As per Patel's statement, Tulsiram had told him that he had a strong apprehension that he would be killed either at the hands of Gujarat or Rajasthan police.

Tulsiram's lawyer, who had accompanied him, requested Patel to take Tulsiram and produce him before the judge so that he could make his submission.

Accordingly, Patel took both Tulsiram and Azam to the principal judge, Bhadra, where Tulsiram deposed about his apprehension orally.

The judge directed him to give a submission of his apprehension in writing, but he didn't give it.

However, Patel told court today that he took Tulsiram Prajapati to the judge, but he was not aware of the development inside the court.

He was then declared hostile by the prosecution.

The Mumbai court has examined over 82 prosecution witnesses so far, of which 57 have turned hostile.

Sohrabuddin, a suspected gangster with terror links, and his wife were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police in November 2005, while Prajapati, his aide, was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.