Tulsiram Prajapati’s ex-jail inmate, two others turn hostile

The inmate told the court that he first met Tulsiram Prajapati (in pic) at Udaipur jail in 2006 after his arrest in an Arms Act case. (File)

In the Tulsiram Prajapati alleged fake encounter case, three witnesses, including Prajapati’s former jail inmate, turned hostile on Thursday.

In 2011, the former inmate had submitted a five-page statement before a magistrate, claiming that Tulsiram had revealed to him the entire conspiracy regarding the abduction and deaths of his associate, Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his wife Kausarbi, involving Gujarat and Rajasthan policemen.

On Thursday, the witness was brought from the Udaipur Central Jail, where he is currently lodged. He told the court that the CBI had then threatened to falsely implicate him and forcefully taken his signatures on the statement.

The inmate told the court that he first met Prajapati at Udaipur jail in 2006 after his arrest in an Arms Act case. He added that he was sent to a Madhya Pradesh prison after around a month and on his return to Udaipur jail — after being arrested in another case in 2006 — he had no occasion to meet Prajapati as he was kept in a separate cell.

In his statement before a magistrate in 2011, the witness had said that Prajapati had told him that he was beaten by jail authorities in March 2006, as an application was filed before the Supreme Court in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case and the authorities wanted him to keep his mouth shut about it. He had also claimed to have heard Prajapati abuse Gujarat Police officers like D G Vanzara, Abhay Chudasama, Udaipur jail superintendent Dinesh M N and then state MoS (Home) Amit Shah. They were initially named as accused in the case but discharged between 2014 and 2017.

On Thursday, the witness said that Prajapati never told him that he and Sohrabuddin were working for the police and that there was a threat to his life from policemen, as he had witnessed the abduction of Sohrabuddin and Kausarbi in 2005.

Two others witnesses who turned hostile included a pan shopowner in Ambaji — close to where Prajapati’s alleged encounter took place in 2006. While the CBI claimed that the witness was present at the time of a panchnama on the police jeep used in the encounter, the witness said he was made to sign the documents in his shop. The third witness also denied being taken to the spot of the encounter. So far, of 132 witnesses, 80 have turned hostile.