Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter: 2 more witnesses declared hostile

In a yet another blow to the prosecution, the bus conductor, who allegedly picked up and dropped Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausarbi and Tulsi Prajapati from the office of a travel agent to the bus stand, was declared hostile.

According to the prosecution, the witness, Mohammed Naimuddin, worked with the travel agency through which the three booked a ticket to go to Sangli from Hyderabad. The witness had allegedly picked them from the point, along with other passengers, and dropped them at the bus depot. Naimuddin had also identified them in the photograph when his statement was recorded by CBI in February 2010.

However, on Tuesday when he came before the court to give evidence, he denied the entire statement and claimed his job is to book tickets and nothing else. He told the court he doesn’t move out of the office and has never picked up any passengers or dropped them.

He was also shown the seat chart of the bus of the day when three travelled, but he refused to identify who was given which seat, claiming there is no specification mentioned.

The second person to turn hostile was Shilpan Sinh, who was witness to the process of collection of signature of NV Chauhan, one of the accused cops attached to Gujarat police. Sinh, a panch witness, denied witnessing the procedure. Sinh said the officers had come to his shop and had obtained his signature along with signature of his friends on blank papers.

Meanwhile, acting on the accused cops’ request, the court asked prosecution to give them a copy of statements’ witnesses recorded by the Gujarat police.