Arrested Dahod police chief’s remand extended

GANDHINAGAR - A Gujarat court Tuesday extended by seven more days the police remand of Dahod Superintendent of Police Vipul Agrawal, arrested in connection with the Tulsi Prajapati “gunfight” case.

Agrawal was arrested by the state CID (crime) earlier this month and was remanded in police custody for seven days. He was the then Banaskantha police chief when Prajapati, the sole witness in the staged killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was killed by the police.

On the expiry of his remand, Agrawal was again brought before a Danta court Tuesday and while the police wanted 10 more days remand, the additional sessions judge, Danta, S.S.Joshi, granted seven days.

The police plea was that he needed to be questioned on the Prajapati gunfight for more details. Along with him, two police constables then posted in Banaskantha, were also granted seven more days of police remand.

Prajapati was killed in December 2006, about a year after Sohrabuddin’s killing.

The then police sub-inspector, Ashish Pandya, who was believed to have shot Prajapati dead, is still absconding, while four policemen of Rajasthan, who were in the know of the things, are also believed to be “missing”.

Meanwhile, the CBI, investigating the Sohrabuddin case, has written to all district collectors to check from the list of the armed license holders in their respective districts if the owner of the 0.32 bore revolver recovered from Sohrabuddin after his encounter, could be traced. The district collectors have been told to intimate the CBI immediately if any information was available about the revolver.