The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday officially began investigation into the Tulsi Prajapati alleged fake encounter as directed by the Supreme Court.
Senior CBI officials in Mumbai P. Kandaswamy and Amitabh Thakur, who had also investigated the Sohrabuddin – Kausarbi murder case, visited the spot near the temple town of Ambaji in Banaskantha district close to the Gujarat – Rajasthan border, where Tulsi Prajapati was killed in an “encounter” allegedly in a joint action by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December, 2006.
The CBI officials had taken the senior officials of the State CID (Crime), which has been investigating the case so far, along during the spot visit and reportedly sought details from Deputy Superintendent of Police R. K. Patel, who was the investigating officer in the case.
The State CID (Crime) has so far taken 14 police personnel, including the then Banaskantha District Superintendent of Police, Vipul Agrawal, into the custody in connection with the Tulsi Prajapati encounter. The then Inspector General of Police, border range, D. G. Vanzara, and the Rajasthan cadre IPS officer, Dinesh Kumar M. N., who are under arrest in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, have also been named as accused in the Prajapati encounter case.
The CBI, which was earlier handed over the Sohrabuddin –Kausarbi case by the Supreme Court, had requested the court to hand over to it the Prajapati encounter case also as it strongly believed that both the encounters were closely linked. The court last week accepted the CBI plea and handed over the Prajapati case to it. It was believed that Tulsi Prajapati was the third person to be allegedly “abducted” by the Gujarat police along with Sohrabuddin and his wife, Kausarbi, from a bus in Andhra Pradesh in November, 2005, and brought to Gujarat.
