Cop corroborates accused’s version

MUMBAI: The bid of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to bring home the guilt of accused police officials in the staged encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh has so far fallen flat as 73 of

116 prosecution witnesses examined since November 2017 have turned hostile. For a change, on Friday, the sole witness who deposed, did not turn hostile. But his testimony is ‘immaterial’ to the central agency since he gave statements in favour of the accused police officers. Natwarsingh Chavda, a police constable attached to the Himmatnagar police station in Gujarat, deposed before special Judge Sunil Sharma. He did not turn hostile and stuck to his initial statements recorded by the CBI, but his testimony does not have any value from the agency’s perspective. He is the constable who had recorded the ‘occurrence report’ and also lodged missing complaint pertaining to Tulsiram Prajapati, the aide of Sohrabuddin, who was killed in November 2006. According to Chavda, he had registered a missing complaint at the instance of Rajasthan police officers, who alleged that Prajapati had escaped from their custody, while he was being taken back to Udaipur jail. He claims to have noted down an occurrence report describing how Prajapati fled from a moving train after some men flung chilli powder on the Rajasthan police officers who were escorting him to Udaipur prison. He further claims that he had also seen some officers washing their eyes afterwards. He even claimed that a mobile phone was recovered in the train compartment from where Prajapati fled. Having stepped in the witness box, Chavda reiterated these statements, which were recorded by the Gujarat CID in 2008 and again by the CBI in 2011. He did not retract his earlier version and was thus not declared hostile. However, Chavda’s statements are not important for the CBI to prove its case, as he corroborates the claims of the accused. - Ayesha Shaikh