CBI takes over Tulsi Prajapati encounter case

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday took over the case related to fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati -- a key witness to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi -- by re-registering FIR in its Mumbai office.

CBI IG, P Kandaswamy, who is heading the investigation team, confirmed that FIR had been filed.

He, however, declined to divulge more details. The Supreme Court, on April 8, had ordered that the probe into Prajapati's killing be transfered to the CBI, following the appeal filed by his mother, Narmada Bai, alleging that her son was killed in a fake encounter by the Gujarat police as he was a key eyewitness in the November 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Prajapati, a close aide of Sohrabuddin, an alleged gangster, was killed in an encounter near Chapri village in Banaskantha district on December 28, 2006.

The court had also criticised the tardy investigation by the Gujarat police. The Supreme Court bench regretted that the State police took more than three-and-a-half years to file the charge sheet.

The Prajapati encounter was being probed earlier by the state CID which had registered FIR last year in Ambaji police station. Seven policemen including IPS officer Vipul Agarwal were arrested in the case.