By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Ahmedabad: Rubabuddin, brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh killed in a fake encounter in November 2005, has demanded that Gujarat CID (Crime) should stop probing Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter and it should also be handed over to CBI.
Rubabuddin’s contention is that the two fake encounters are linked with each other and hence they should not be investigated by two different agencies. “These are two different incidents of the same case and hence, these needed to be probed by one agency only’’, he has demanded.
The further investigation into the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case was handed over to CBI on January 12, 2010, by the Supreme Court after the latter was convinced that Gujarat police was not conducting the probe properly.
Prajapati was the lone eyewitness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake shootout case. It is alleged that Prajapati was eliminated through a conspiracy in order to wipe out the evidence about the extra judicial killing of Sohrabuddin.
Rubabuddin, who is fighting the Sohrabuddin case in Supreme Court, said that since the Gujarat police had failed to conduct fair probe into Sohrabuddin case, it is not possible for it to carry out proper investigation in Prajapati’s fake encounter as well.
Buttressing his argument, he said that the Gujarat police had been carrying out probe into Prajapati’s case for the last two years but it did not progress at all. However, Gujarat CID (Crime) became active and made arrests only after the CBI was handed over the Sohrabuddin case and arrested senior IPS official Abhay Chudasama.
Four Rajasthan police personnel absconding
Meanwhile, a team of Gujarat CID (Crime) has returned empty handed from Udaipur in Rajasthan where they had been camping for the last several days looking for four Rajasthan police personnel involved in fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati on December 28, 2006.
While an IPS official Vipul Agrawal and three police personnel — all from Gujarat — have been arrested in connection with the fake encounter of Prajapati, four Rajasthan police personnel as also a Gujarat police inspector-Ashish Pandya- are still absconding.
Pandya, who was promoted as police inspector after the fake encounter, was posted in Ahmedabad. However, he was transferred to Rajkot in April this year. He took his charge at Rajkot on April 12 and worked for two days. But he did not report on duty after that. CID (Crime) sleuths also looked for him at his residence in Bhuj in bordering Kutch district but he was not found there as well. His cellphone is also switched off and he is totally incommunicado.
CID (crime) sleuths, who camped in Udaipur in Rajasthan looking for four cops, returned empty handed on Saturday. Rajsthan cops wanted in the case are head constable Narayan Singh Chauhan and constables Yudhvir Singh, Kartar Singh Jat and Dalpat Singh.
According to police sources, all the four went on leave on different dates but did not resume their duties even after expiry of their leave period. While Kartar went on leave on March 11, Yudhvir on April 19 and Dalpat on May 4. The Gujarat police also visited their homes but found them locked, with no one to tell them about their whereabouts.
Prajapti, who was lodged in Udaipur jail in connection with a criminal case, was brought to Ahmedabad on December 26, 2006, for his appearance in court in connection with Popular builders firing case in Ahmedabad in 2005.
However, while being escorted back, he was shot dead in a fake encounter at Chhapri, near Gujarat-Rajasthan border on December 28, 2006, by a team of Gujarat and Rajasthan police. However, the police had claimed that Prajapati was shot dead in an encounter.
A total of 21 police men, including five IPS officers have so far been arrested in Sohrabuddin-Prajapati fake encounter cases. The IPS officers are: DG Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Abhay Chudasama, Vipul Agrawal, Dinesh MN.