Fifth Gujarat cop arrested in Sohrabuddin case

GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat police’s criminal investigation department Monday arrested the fifth Indian Police Service officer - Dahod Superintendent of Police Vipul Agrawal - in connection with the staged killing of Tulsi Prajapati, the sole eye-witness to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Agrawal was arrested in the state capital and is likely to be brought before a court Tuesday.

Prajapati was a close associate of Sheikh and perhaps the only eye-witness to his elimination by the Gujarat police. It was on his information that Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi were taken off a bus by the Gujarat police while on their way from Hyderabad to Sangli and both killed.

Prajapati was killed in a “shootout” December 2006 also orchestrated by Deputy Inspector General of Police D.G. Vanzara, who is the key accused in the Sheikh killing. Agrawal was the district superintendent of police of Banaskantha district where the killing took place.