Three builders, including two men who are prime witnesses in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh ‘fake’ encounter case, were arrested in connection with a Rs. 100-crore land scam on Sunday, city crime branch officials said here.
Dashrat Patel and Raman Patel, the two witnesses, and their relative, Pankaj Patel, who carry on construction business under the firm-name Popular Builders, were arrested on the basis of a complaint filed in 2010, police said.
The owners of Popular Builders were accused of forging documents to acquire land in Sachin, Unn taluka, they added.
Dashrat and Raman Patel are prime witnesses in the ‘fake’ encounter case in which former Gujarat minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, is a prime accused.
According to the CBI chargesheet, in December 2004, Gujarat police had orchestrated a shoot-out at office of Popular Builders, using close aides of Sohrabuddin, in order to frame up him.
The Patel brothers were allegedly told, at Shah’s behest, that they would be given written statements, according to which they would have to depose before the CBI.
The brothers had four meeting with Shah’s middlemen. They videographed them and these recordings form a major evidence against Shah and other accused.
