Prajapati encounter: Lawyers for accused put CBI in dock

On the issue of not taking prior approval from the state government before chargesheeting government servants, including former Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, in the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case by the CBI, lawyers of the accused argued before the CBI special court on Saturday largely on merits of the case rather than point of law. The arguments will continue on Monday.

Senior counsel S V Raju, who appeared on behalf of Johri, concluded his argument saying "the allegations against her of delaying in granting permission to V L Solanki (CID inspector who investigated Sohrab case) to interrogate Prajapati in Indore was part of her official duty but it doesn't connect her to Prajapati case at all as claimed by CBI."

He also said there is absolutely nothing against Johri in the case.

Advocate Yatin Oza, who represents DyPS R K Patel (CID investigator in Prajapati case), while challenging the cognisance of the chargesheet taken by the court tried to politicise the matter. He criticised CBI and said "this has been done for political reasons as CBI is like a puppet in the hands of Central government which is malicious and vindictive in nature".

However, additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A Y Dave interrupted Oza and said at this stage it was not proper to argue on merits of the case.

Manisha Lav Kumar, the lawyer of former DGP P C Pande, argued on how Pande has been wrongly implicated in the case. She will be continuing her argument on Monday as well.

Next in the line are the lawyers of Amit Shah and R K Pandian.

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