Two more prosecution witnesses on Friday turned hostile in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati alleged fake encounter cases, taking the number of witnesses who didn’t support the CBI’s case to 52.
The court here has examined 76 witnesses so far.
Rafique Hafiz and Firoze Khan, deposing before Special Judge S J Sharma here, said they had not given any statement to the CBI, contrary to the agency’s claim.
They said they had visited the agency’s office only once and the CBI had taken down their names and addresses.
Special public prosecutor BP Raju then declared them hostile. According to the CBI, Hafiz and Khan had said they were arrested in a murder case (both were acquitted later), and Prajapati, who met them in a Rajasthan jail, told them that he and Shaikh were going to extort Rs 20 crore each from R K Marbles and Sangam Textiles.
However, Gujarat Police officer Abhay Chudasama picked up Prajapati, Shaikh and Shaikh’s wife Kausar Bi. All three were brought to Ahmedabad on November 24, 2005, where Chudasma and IPS officer D G Vanzara assured them that they were arresting Shaikh only under political pressure, Prajapati told the two, according to the CBI.
The police officers had told Shaikh that he would soon get bail, the agency said, citing the two witnesses.