Travel firm clerk gave CBI key info on Prajapati

During its probe into Tulsiram Prajapati's encounter killing, the CBI claims to have traced his entire journey ever since he was "abducted" by Gujarat Police from near Sangli in Maharashtra in November 2005 along with Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi. The probe agency found one witness who identified Prajapati as the third man travelling in the bus with the couple.

The CBI has relied on testimony of a booking clerk of Sangita Travels, a company that ran a bus service from Hyderabad to Sangli. The man reportedly identified Prajapati from a photo shown to him, recalling that he had fought to get a seat near the Sheikh couple.

The CBI theory runs counter to the conclusion of Gujarat Police's probe into Prajapati's killing that said the third man travelling with Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi was one Kalimuddin alias Nayimuddin, a former Naxal.

After their "abduction", Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Prajapati were allegedly brought to Valsad where Abhay Chudasama was posted as Superintendent of Police. Chudasama is now one of the accused in the Sohrabuddin case.

After Sohrabuddin's elimination, Prajapati was taken to Udaipur in Rajasthan where the then STF chief Dinesh M N arrested him for the murder of Hamid Lala, an alleged extortionist.

After Prajapati's arrest, Gujarat ATS chief D G Vanzara and some others had gone to interrogate him. At that time, Prajapati had protested the killing of his friend Sohrabuddin, saying the police had betrayed him. Vanzara had allegedly threatened Prajapati that he too would be killed if he spoke out about Sohrabuddin's encounter.

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