A constable, then attached to the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), is reported to have made a statement before the Central Bureau of Investigation giving graphic details of the Sohrabuddin killing that prove that the encounter was a “fake one.”
Ajay Parmar, who was arrested by the State CID (Crime) when it was investigating the Sohrabuddin alleged fake encounter case and was questioned by the CBI in jail, is reported to have told the CBI that the motorbike Sohrabuddin was said to be riding while “firing” at the police was procured by him from among many bikes lying on the ATS campus.
He said he was told to pick up a motorbike and bring it to Narol, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he left it. Just before the “encounter,” he found a sub-inspector of the Rajasthan cadre riding the bike at a very high speed and jumped off it near the spot where Sohrabuddin was later killed. The bike fell and skidded off the road, creating an alibi for the D.G. Vanzara-led ATS to show that Sohrabuddin was riding the bike and fell off it when the police fired at him in “self-defence.”
A Maruti car arrived at the spot some time later, from which Deputy Superintendent of Police M.L. Parmar and Sub-Inspector Balkrishna Chaube dragged Sohrabuddin out of its rear seat with his hands tied, and he was gunned down moments later.
Ajay Parmar also informed the CBI how some IPS officers tried to cover their tracks with false moves. On November 21, 2005, he was told by inspector D. H. Dabhi to accompany him to Hyderabad to be part of an operation. They travelled by road and reached Hyderabad the next day. They informed Rajkumar Pandian, another IPS officer accused in the fake encounter along with Mr. Vanzara, about their arrival. Mr. Pandian was already in Hyderabad. Ajay Parmar was immediately told to fly back to Ahmedabad with an air ticket issued in Mr. Pandian's name.
Apparently, it was to show that Pandian was not in Hyderabad when Sohrabuddin was picked up from the Hyderabad-Sangli bus, along with his wife Kauserbi and a “third person.”
When Ajay Parmar reached the Ahmedabad ATS office on November 23, he saw the Hyderabad team present. Two days later, he was told to procure the motorbike at 3.30 a.m. on November 25. When he reached Narol with the bike, Mr. Vanzara, Mr. Pandian, the Rajasthan cadre IPS officer, Dinesh Kumar M. N., who was then Udaipur District Superintendent of Police, Mr. Dabhi and several other police officers were present there.
However, while the interrogation of Ajay Parmar was proving to be fruitful for the CBI, another constable, Bhailal Rathod, then a driver with the ATS, has filed an application in the special CBI court, alleging that the agency was “coercing” him to give a statement “the CBI wished.”
Rathod said the CBI had recorded his statement twice, but was pressuring him to give a statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate, which could be used as a piece of evidence. He said he did not wish to make a statement before a magistrate, but the CBI was threatening to arraign him as an accused, instead of being a witness, if he refused to comply with its orders. He had refused to give a statement before the magistrate when the State CID (Crime) wanted him to do so in July 2007.
The court issued a show cause notice to the CBI and posted the matter for June 10.
DSP suspended
The State government has suspended Dahod District Superintendent of Police Vipul Agrawal, who has been arrested by the CID (Crime) in connection with the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case, which is also considered fake.
Mr. Agrawal, arrested on May 3, was the DSP of Banaskantha where Prajapati was killed in an “encounter” on December, 28, 2006, a year after the Sohrabuddin encounter. The investigating agencies believed that the two “encounters” were linked, and the “third person” the Gujarat police team picked up from the Hyderabad-Sangli bus was Prajapati.
