SOHRABUDDIN CASE: Key witness turns hostile
The testimony of Majid was utmost important for the prosecution to falsify the claims of the accused cops. The accused police officials have maintained since day one, that Sohrabuddin was killed in an encounter after he made an attempt to escape from cust
Yet another prosecution witness in the staged encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and close aide Tulsiram Prajapati, turned hostile on Wednesday. This prosecution witness was one of the important witnesses as his testimony could have trashed the entire ‘encounter’ theory of the accused in the case.
Now, the total number of hostile witnesses reach 48 out of the total 66 examined by the special CBI court so far, since November 2017.
The witness – Mohammed Majid – had deposed before the special court. Majid, a hotel owner in Udaipur, Rajasthan, had earlier given statements to the probe team. In his initial statements to the police, Majid had claimed he was familiar with accused Abdul Rehman, a police officer and also an accused in the case. He further claimed Rehman had informed him that the police officials have picked up Sohrabuddin.
The testimony of Majid was utmost important for the prosecution to falsify the claims of the accused cops. The accused police officials have maintained since day one that Sohrabuddin was killed in an encounter after he made an attempt to escape from custody and fired several round against the cops.
If Majid would have stuck to his initial statements, then it would have come on record that the accused cops had abducted Sohrabuddin and had kept him in ‘illegal’ custody for several days. His testimony would have also helped in trashing the encounter theory, as proposed by the accused cops.
However, while his deposition before special Judge Sunil Sharma, Majid refused to identify accused Rehman. He told the judge that he has no idea as to who is Rehman. He told the judge that he had never met or does not know Rehman.
With Majid’s retraction from the earlier statements, he was declared hostile by Judge Sharma.
The special court would continue examining witnesses on Thursday.