Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife. (file photo )
THE COUNT of witnesses turning hostile in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case increased by four, after all four of them, who deposed Wednesday, denied contents of the panchnama they had signed on. So far, 59 witnesses have deposed, of which 42 have turned hostile.
On Wednesday, four residents of Ahmedabad were called as prosecution witnesses to depose on the panchnama conducted by the police in connection with the alleged encounter of Sohrabuddin on November 26, 2005.
The first two witnesses, had signed on the same panchnama document, pertaining to the seizure of clothes worn by Sohrabuddin at the time of his alleged encounter. Both the witnesses were approached by policemen on November 26, 2005 when they were out after dinner in Ahmedabad.
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One of the two witnesses told the court that the police asked them if they were willing to do ‘seva ka kaam’ as panch witnesses and took them to the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) office. They were told that a death had occurred and a panchnama is to be drawn of the clothes the deceased was wearing.
The first witness told the court that he had been shown a shirt, pants, an underwear and a vest. The second witness, similarly, told the court of the four articles and said that socks were also shown to him.
The prosecution, however, declared them hostile, after they denied being told who the articles belonged to and said they had no idea about the contents of the panchnama they signed on. They told the court that they signed on it without its contents being explained to them. They also said they could not identify the clothes shown to them in the courtroom as it has been over ‘10-12 years’ since the incident.
On being asked if they could identify anyone sitting in the courtroom, the witnesses expressed their inability to do that.
The second group of witnesses had signed on a panchnama document pertaining to blood samples collected from a car, allegedly, used at the time of the encounter. Both the witnesses, who were auto drivers, said the police had called them to the ATS office on November 26, 2005 and asked them to be panch witnesses.
The third witness told the court that he was taken towards a small car, parked in the maidan, at the ATS office. He told the court that he had seen the policemen perform some procedure inside the car, but it was not explained to him. He also told the court that he was at a distance from the car and had not been able to see anything clearly. He also could not recall the colour of the car due to the lapse in time, he said.
The fourth witness on the same point said that he had seen the police take samples of blood from the rear seat of the car and put the cotton swabs in plastic containers. He was declared hostile as he could not identify the plastic containers when shown to him as it was many years ago.
The court will continue to examine witnesses on Thursday.
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