CBI chargesheets Amit Shah, Geetha Johri, PC Pande and others in Tulsi encounter case
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- Current News
- Wednesday, 05 September 2012 01:33
- Published on Wednesday, 05 September 2012 11:38
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Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad
The CBI has named former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah along with IPS officer Geetha Johri and other former police officers as accused in the Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter case.
The CBI filed a chargesheet in the Tulsi case in the judicial magistrate’s court at Danta in Palanpur. The names of former Gujarat DGP PC Pande; former Ahmedabad police commissioner OP Mathur and deputy superintendent of police (DySP) RK Patel along with names of Johri and Shah figure in the list of 20 people named by the CBI. Some of the accused like IPS officers DG Vanzara, Dinesh MN, Vipul Aggarwal and police sub-inspector Asahish Pandya are already in jail.
There was high speculation as the CBI filed the chargesheet in the Danta court in Palanpur instead of its designated court in Ahmedabad. But the logic behind the CBI’s move is that the site of the encounter falls within the jurisdiction of the Danta court. The move was opposed by advocates of the accused following which, the court fixed further hearing in the matter on September 10.
According to CBI sources, Johri has been charged with criminal conspiracy, murder and destruction of evidence. Amit Shah and all the IPS officers named as accused in the case have also been charged with the same allegations.
Johri, currently posted as managing director of the Gujarat Police Housing Corporation (GPHC), was leading the investigation of the Sohrabhuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. V L Solanki, the investigating officer in the case, sought permission from Johri to interrogate Tulsiram at Udaipur central jail. Johri, allegedly denied permission to Solanki. Two weeks later, Prajapati was killed in the fake encounter.
The CBI believes that Tulsi was killed because he knew of the abduction by the Gujarat police of Sohrabuddin and his wife, Kausarbi. Tulsi had also allegedly threatened to expose the police officers involved in the Sohrab encounter when he was lodged in Udaipur jail.
Amit Shah was arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in 2010. He was given bail in the same year. The Supreme Court has barred him from entering Gujarat after the CBI challenged his bail. Shah is now an accused in both the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter cases.
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