Sohrabuddin fake encounter case: 29th witness who ‘saw a victim’ turns hostile

Another prosecution witness was on Wednesday declared hostile during the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case trial in Mumbai.

The trial was conducted in an open court for the first time after the Bombay high court set aside the CBI judge’s November 29 order which had restrained the media from reporting the proceedings.

A roadside hotel owner on Wednesday deposed for the prosecution in the CBI court in Mumbai. However, since he did not support the prosecution’s case, he was declared hostile.

He was the 29th witness to be declared hostile in the controversial case. As many as 28 witnesses had turned hostile during the two months when the trial was being conducted without any media coverage.

So far, 41 witnesses have been examined in the case.

According to the CBI, the present witness had seen Tulsiram Prajapati -- one of the victims of alleged fake encounters -- in a police car, but he did not support the prosecution’s case in the court.

Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a gangster with alleged terror links, and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra in November, 2005.

Shaikh was allegedly killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar while his wife disappeared.

Prajapati, an aide of Shaikh’s and eyewitness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by police at Chapri village in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district in December 2006.