Shahnawazuddin, the younger brother of Sohrabuddin, has requested that his testimony be recorded expeditiously in connection with the alleged fake encounter case. He has said he was under pressure and facing a threat to his life. In his application, Shahnawazuddin told the court that he was “under constant surveillance by powerful politicians involved in the case,” an Indian Express report said.
Shahnawazuddin is a “primary witness” in the case. Tulsiram Prajapati, an eye-witness in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, had spoken to him about the murder conspiracy. Prajapati was shot dead in an alleged fake encounter case a year after Sohrabuddin’s encounter.
Shahnawazuddin claimed he was given three letters by Prajapati with his signatures and was said to “somehow use them” to save his life. But he has not been named as a witness in the Sohrabuddin case in which several witnesses have turned hostile. In addition to this, his advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan told the court that the blank letters were not presented before the court.
“Ramakrishnan submitted to the court that the CBI did not seem to have the intention to summon Shahnawazuddin and that he sought to be called suo motu by the court under provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code,” said the Indian Express report.
The Sohrabuddin fake encounter case
Sohrabbuddin Sheikh was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005. He was travelling from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad with his wife Kauser Bi in November that year when an Anti-Terror Squad team pursued them. He was killed because he refused to surrender, then Director General of Police DG Vanzara said. The police termed it as an encounter.
According to Vanzara, the Gujarat ATS was acting on inputs from Rajasthan police.
Vanzara alleged that Sohrabuddin was named in many murder FIRs and had connections with the LeT and ISI. He also said that Sohrabuddin was accused in the assassination of Gujarat Minister Hiren Pandya and was preparing to assassinate a Gujarat minister believed to be the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
BJP president Amit Shah was named as the kingpin of the Sohrabuddin fake encounter by the CBI in 2010. In 2014, they discharged him. But several petitions challenging the decision are pending in court.
Prajapati was amongst many witnesses who challenged the encounter claim of the police. He had said that he witnessed the shooting of Sohrabuddin. Prajapati was allegedly killed in a fake encounter in December 2006. Vanzara was in jail for seven years for plotting the fake encounter. He was acquitted in August last year. CBI also named Amit Shah in the case in 2013.
The CBI has so far examined 80 prosecution witnesses and the last one turned hostile. It is yet to file a final sheet of witnesses.