Why CID denied cop permission to record Prajapati’s

Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia on Friday demanded a probe into the refusal of permission to CID (Crime) Inspector V L Solanki to record statements of Tulsi Prajapati,who was considered to be the third person accompanying Sohrabuddin Sheikh and the latter’s wife,Kausar bi. Sohrabuddin was gunned down in a fake encounter and subsequently his wife was killed in October 2005. Solanki was inquiring into it on the SC’s orders. Addressing mediapersons here,Modhwadia said that Solanki was to go to Rajasthan on December 13,2006,to collect statements of Prajapati lodged in the Udaipur jail. But he was denied permission by the then CID (Crime) chief O P Mathur,now retired and working as vice-chancellor of Gujarat Raksha University. He also demanded a probe into the posting of IPS officer D G Vanzara on December 15,2006,as Deputy Inspector General (DIG),Border Range,having jurisdiction over Banaskantha district. Prajapati was shot dead by the police on December 28,2006,in Banaskantha. He alleged that CM Narendra Modi had a role in the transfer of Vanzara who had “mastered the art of fake encounters”. “The gang involved in extortion racket,which wanted to kill Prajapati with the sole motive to eliminate evidence in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin,got Vanzara posted as DIG.”

Prajapati,who had a criminal case registered against him in Ahmedabad,was brought on a court warrant to Gujarat. He was reported to have escaped from police custody during return journey but was shot dead on December 28. The police had claimed that he was killed in an encounter. But the latest CID investigations revealed that it was a fake killing like that of Sohrabuddin.