SC stays proceedings against Amit Shah in Tulsiram Prajapati murder case

The Supreme Court today stayed further proceedings against former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case.

A Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi also issued notice to the CBI on Shah's plea contending that Prajapati murder case is part of Sohrabuddin Sheikh's fake encounter case and they should be heard together.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Shah, argued there was no need for a separate FIR in the Prajapati case as the case came to light during the CBI probe into the Sohrabuddin's fake encounter case.

He submitted that the chargesheet filed in the Prajapati murder case should be treated as second supplementary chargesheet in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh's murder case.

The court after hearing his argument asked the CBI to file its reply by November 23 and stayed all proceedings against Shah in Prajapati fake encounter case.

The CBI in its chargesheet filed on September 29 in the 2006 Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter case has named Shah, a close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and 19 others.

The chargesheet has them of committing offences of murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence etc. The special court, while accepting the chargesheet, had kept the issue of taking its cognisance pending.

Shah, who is also the prime accused in killings of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi, has been named accused number one and the kingpin of the conspiracy in the fake encounter case of Prajapati, who was killed near Chhapri village near Danta in Palanpur on December 28, 2006.

The CBI has said Prajapati was a witness in the Sohrabuddin case and his killing was part of a larger conspiracy in which Shah, as the then head of the state's police administration, was involved.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

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