Senior Rajasthan cop to court: Juniors shot Sohrabuddin, Prajapati

One of the prime accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case, Dinesh M N Rajasthan IPS officer told the Bombay High Court, he had no role to play in the incident. His lawyer Raja Thackeray told the court, “There is no prima facie evidence to show Dinesh was part of killing and hatching of conspiracy in the case of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati.”

Thackeray informed the HC the presumption of innocence in this case was further strengthened since the trial court had chosen to discharge him from the case and the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) had chosen not to challenge his discharge. In fact the CBI had claimed the juniors had shot Sohrabuddin.

Thackeray said, "The same court rejected the discharge applications filed by three junior police officers who were alleged to have accompanied me to the encounter site. Because the CBI had claimed they were the ones who had shot at Sohrabuddin.” Thackeray said the CBI had only accused him of having conspired to have killed Sohrabudding and didn’t ascribe any distinct role to me and said merely that I had conspired to have Sohrabuddin and Prajapati killed. “However, the CBI court held that there was no prima facie evidence to suggest I had been part of the conspiracy, much less that I had a role to play in the actual killings," Thackeray said.

Dinesh had allegedly travelled on November 24, 2005 from Udaipur to Ahmedabad to participate in the alleged encounter (of Saikh) on November 26, 2005. Thackeray however, told HC his client had gone to Ahmedabad at the said time to attend an official training.

"I had the permission of the Director General of Rajasthan Police, I stayed at the government circuit house. That proves that I had gone to Ahmedabad on official duty," he told HC.

The High Court was hearing three applications filed by Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin challenging the discharge of former deputy inspector-general of Gujarat D G Vanzara, Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh M N and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan, along with two applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan Police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod and Gujarat Police officer NK Amin.

The arguments are likely to continue on Friday.