Tulsiram’s mother may oppose plea by accused cops

Ahmedabad : Narmadabai, mother of Tulsiram Prajapati who was killed in a police encounter in December 2006, is likely to oppose the petitions by five of the accused police officers in the case who had moved the High Court challenging the Danta court’s jurisdiction in taking cognisance of the CBI’s chargesheet in the case.

The five officers — P C Pande, O P Mathur, Geetha Johri, Rajkumar Pandian and R K Patel — have contended that the Danta court has no jurisdiction over the matter and that the agency should have filed the chargesheet before the special CBI court. The court at Danta had rejected their arguments.

The petitions were scheduled for hearing before the HC on Monday. The hearing was adjourned after CBI counsel sought time to take instructions and file reply.

At this juncture, Narmadabai’s lawyer Mukul Sinha told the court they wanted to file a petition opposing the demands of the accused on the grounds that unless and until a court orders further proceedings on the chargesheet, the accused had no role. And so, he added, the accused had no locus standi at this stage and could not raise questions over the issue of jurisdiction.

The CBI recently submitted its chargesheet before a magisterial court in Danta against 20 people, including former minister of state for home Amit Shah and former Gujarat DGP P C Pande.