Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in an alleged fake encounter on November 28, 2006 by a team of policemen including Pandya, the CBI claims. (File)
Two Railway employees present in the train from which Tulsiram Prajapati allegedly escaped in 2006 were declared hostile on Monday. The duo, the train’s guard and assistant driver, contradicted their own statements given to the CBI in 2011 on the significant point of chilli powder being found on the clothes and eyes of the accused policemen.
The CBI claims that Tulsiram was abducted from the Ahmedabad-Udaipur train on the night of November 27, 2006, but the accused policemen had claimed that he had escaped by flinging chilli powder in the eyes of his police escort guards. The CBI claims that Tulsiram was subsequently shown to have been killed in a fake encounter on November 29, when he was in the custody of the accused.
The two witnesses recalled the night of the incident on November 27, 2006, when they reported as guard and assistant driver on the Ahmedabad-Udaipur train number 9944 from Himmatnagar station. “Between the stations Raigadh and Shyamlaji, the train had slowed down as there was some work being conducted on the railway tracks. The train had then suddenly come to a halt. I called the driver on the walkie-talkie and asked him the reason for the halt. He told me that there was an incident of chain-pulling,” the then guard told the court on Monday.
He further said he had seen 4-5 persons running by and had also heard sounds, which seemed to him like firecrackers. “I saw police guards and asked them what had happened. They told me that two persons in the bogie had put chilli powder in their eyes and caused the escape of a prisoner they were escorting,” he said.
The guard told the court in the compartment, there was chilli powder on the floor and the clothes of the policemen. He added that the policemen were rubbing their eyes. The guard further said that he had seen a mobilephone on the tracks and had handed it over to the policemen.
In the statement given to the CBI, the guard had, however, said, “I did not see any symptom of red chilli powder in the eyes of that policeman but I saw a tin box containing red chilli powder lying in general train coach in which these police officials were travelling.” He had also said that no mobilephone had been found. The accused policemen had claimed that the mobilephone belonged to the accomplices of Tulsiram on the train, and it had led them to Tulsiram, two days later.
The assistant driver had similarly told the CBI in 2011 that there was no chilli powder on the face or uniform of the policemen. He contradicted his statement on Monday.
Special public prosecutor declared the two hostile and suggested to them that they had made the additions regarding chilli powder to save the accused. The guard also told the court that he had seen the policemen along with the prisoner present in one of the bogies, before the beginning of the journey from Himmatnagar station. He had told the court that the prisoner was in handcuffs.
While this was not mentioned in the witness statement to the CBI in 2011, it contradicts the CBI claim that Tulsiram was never made to travel in the train and the escape story was made up as part of the conspiracy. In November 2006, Tulsiram was taken for a court hearing to Ahmedabad and on November 27, 2006, he was being taken back to Udaipur central jail where he was lodged. The CBI claims that since he was a witness to the abduction of his associate, Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife, Kausarbi, who was killed in a staged encounter in 2006.
The witnesses on Monday also said that they could not identify the policemen travelling in the train that night. The CBI claims that three of the accused — Narayan Singh, Kartar Singh and Yudhvir Singh — were part of the escort team. So far, 69 of 108 witnesses examined have turned hostile.