‘Amit Shah Key Conspirator in Tulsiram Prajapati Fake Encounter’

The chief investigation officer of the case made the claim in a CBI court on Wednesday.

BJP chief Amit Shah. (File Photo: IANS)

BJP chief Amit Shah and three IPS officers were the main conspirators in the alleged 2016 fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, the chief investigation officer (CIO) of the case, Sandeep Tamgadge, claimed in a CBI court on Wednesday, 21 November.

According to The Indian Express, Tamgadge, who investigated the case from April 2012, said that there was a “politician-criminal” nexus, and named Shah and Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria as the alleged “politicians” who had “used criminals” — Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Tulsiram and Azam Khan — to fire at the office of Popular Builders in 2004.

The CBI’s claim is that Shaikh and Prajapati ran an extortion racket in collusion with police and politicians. When Shaikh decided to go against his alleged masters, a conspiracy to eliminate him was hatched.

“From the investigation done by us, we found the principal conspirators were Amit Shah, DG Vanzara (former Deputy Inspector-General Gujarat Police), Rajkumar Pandian (SP, Intelligence Bureau) and MN Dinesh (IPS officer, Rajasthan Police).”

Sandeep Tamgadge

All four accused were discharged by the trial court in the case between 2014 and 2017.

Tamgade, who deposed during the ongoing trial, however, conceded that that his claim was not supported by any documentary evidence in the charge sheet filed by him.

When asked by defence lawyers to name the people whose call records established the conspiracy, Tamgadge said “the call records of (Amit) Shah, Dinesh MN, Vanzara, Pandiyan, Vipul Agarwal, Ashish Pandya, N H Dabhi, G S Rao.”

Tamgade, the then Superintendent of Police (CBI), had prepared a supplementary charge sheet in the Sohrabuddin case and the main charge sheet in the Tulsiram case. Both cases are being tried together before special CBI judge SJ Sharma.

Tamgade also said he had interrogated Shah, marble trader from Rajasthan, Vimal Patni, and Rajasthan minister Gulabchandra Kataria in the case.

"There was some incriminating material against the trio. But those statements were not filed in the charge sheet," he said.

The defence then moved an application, saying the CBI should produce these statements in the court. The court will hear the application Thursday, PTI reported.

Shaikh, a suspected gangster with terror links, was shot dead on 26 November 2005 while he was in custody of Gujarat Police in an alleged fake encounter. His wife Kausar Bi was also allegedly killed later.  

Prajapati, an aide of Shaikh who was said to be a witness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by police forces of Gujarat and Rajasthan at Chapri in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district in December 2006.

Of the 38 persons charged by the CBI for the alleged fake encounters, 15 have been discharged.

(With inputs from PTI, The Indian Express.)