Cops’ probe a ruse to hinder CBI, says Prajapati’s mother

GANDHINAGAR - The mother of Tulsi Prajapati, the slain associate of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who too was killed in a fake gun battle, has asked Gujarat police to halt their probe as it was a ruse to thwart a federal agency investigation.

“The manner in which the Gujarat police woke up suddenly and started arresting its own officers after remaining inactive for over three years gives enough reasons to believe that justice will not be done,” said Narmadabai Gangaram Prajapati, Tulsi’s mother, in a notice to Gujarat Director General of Police S.S. Khandwawala.

The notice was issued through her lawyer Amrish Patel.

She said the police’s crime branch started arresting several police officers only after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Ahmedabad’s deputy commissioner of police Abhay Chudasama in connection with the Sohrabuddin killing.

The crime branch was suddenly activated to prevent the CBI from taking any further action, she alleged.

Tulsi was killed Dec 26, 2006, in what the police claimed was a gun battle when he tried to escape from their custody and opened fire.

Sub-inspector Ashish Pandya, who had filed the First Information Report (FIR) a day after the incident, was recently arrested by the crime branch.

Five policemen, including Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Vipul Agrawal, have been arrested for Tulsi’s death, almost a year after Sohrabuddin was killed in a staged gun battle and his wife Kausarbi disappeared mysteriously.

The Supreme Court Jan 12 severely criticised the investigation by the Gujarat police crime branch into the Sohrabuddin case and handed over the investigation to the CBI to probe the larger conspiracy.

The apex court ruled that there was no reason to believe the police contention that the third person picked up along with Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauserbi was not Tulsi.

The court rejected the Gujarat government’s revision petition filed against this judgment and also turned down its plea to strike down the strictures against the state investigating officer Geetha Johri.

Meanwhile, four police officers, including Agrawal, were Monday sent to judicial custody on the completion of their police remand in the Tulsi case.

The fifth policeman, Pandya, however, continues to be in crime branch custody.