Not possible to source gun on the run, Sohrabuddin, Prajapati encounters fake says CBI

Mumbai, Dec 4: The Central Bureau of Investigation has reiterated in court that the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounters were fake.

Advancing final arguments in the case, Special Public Prosecutor, B P Raju told the court that both encounters were fake. He went on to question the report of a senior inspector of the Rajasthan police, who had said that he had received an input suggesting that Shaikh had links with the ISI and Lashkar-e-Tayiba and was planning on assassinating a big political leader.

To back his arguments, he said that Kumbh Singh, then a sub-inspector with the district special branch of the Udaipur police was examined as a prosecution witness and he had denied having received any such information. Further he said that both Shaikh and Prajapati were charged in the Hamid Lala murder case in March 2005. However there is no mention even then on such links.

The special CBI court judge, S J Sharma sought to know why no agency or investigator had probed as from where and who such information had come. Raju then said that the ticket from Surat to Ahmedabad had no blood stains on it. However the other articles seized such as the driving licence had blood stains.

When Raju said that the it was planted, the judge asked, " all the accused were with you. Initially there were 38. Did the CBI interrogate as to who planted it?" Raju then said that four persons had mentioned about a threat to Shaikh's life. This shows that the encounter was fake, he added.

He further added that the call detail records of the mobile seized from Shaikh was not checked and the ATS had not mentioned from where he got the motorcycle. He also said that said that the chilli-powder theory in the Prajapati case is not satisfactory. When Prajapati was spotted in Chhapri in Amreli district, two other persons were there. Who were they, he asked.

To this the judge said that the investigation agency should have made efforts to find out.

It was a planned encounter, the prosecutor said adding that the finger prints of Prajapati were not found in the desi katta that was seized. He was in custody for one year. He escaped from custody on November 27 2006 and was killed the next morning. It is highly impossible for him to source a pistol while on the run. Moreover the sample of the hand wash was not taken to check on the gun-powder, the prosecutor also said.