Prajapati case: CBI files chargesheet in Ahmedabad court

In its chargesheet,the CBI has named former state minister Amit Shah and 19 others as accused,including additional DGP Geetha Johri and former DGP P C Pande

The CBI filed its chargesheet in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati case in a special court in Ahmedabad Saturday,days after the Gujarat High Court ruled this was the competent court to hear the case.

In its chargesheet,the CBI has named former state minister Amit Shah and 19 others as accused,including additional DGP Geetha Johri and former DGP P C Pande.

The CBI had first filed the chargesheet in a court in Danta,where Prajapati was killed,on August 4,but some of the accused moved the High Court,challenging the Danta courts jurisdiction in the case.

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On September 25,the HC ruled that the special CBI court in Ahmedabad was the competent court to take cognizance of the chargesheet.

Soon after it was filed Saturday,about half-a-dozen lawyers representing the accused requested the court not to take cognizance of the chargesheet as the CBI had not submitted all material as ordered by the court.

The court accepted the chargesheet but said it would verify the documents before taking its cognizance and posted the matter for further hearing on October 10.

Prajapati was killed in an alleged fake police encounter at Chhapri village in Danta on December 28,2006. He was reportedly a key witness of the encounter killing of Sohrabuddin and later his wife Kauserbi.

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Amit Shah is also an accused in the Sohrabuddin case. He was granted bail by the HC in November 2010 on the condition that he would stay away from Gujarat in the interests of a fair probe.

On Thursday last,the SC shifted the Sohrabuddin case trial to Mumbai. A day later,Shah landed in his home state after an exile of nearly two years.