The Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter killing trial in which BJP chief Amit Shah was recently discharged is likely to take two years to complete. In a report prepared by the Bombay High Court Registrar General presented to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the Special CBI Judge hearing the case has cited close to 650 witnesses who remain to be still examined by the prosecution. This is likely to take two years time, the report added.
The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Ghose had sought the report in connection with a petition filed by accused police official Rajkumar Pandian. Pandian was restrained from leaving Bombay as a condition of bail which he had opposed. The bench posted the matter in July and asked the trial judge to complete proceedings in the case as expeditiously as possible. In July, when the matter is expected to be heard next, the Court hinted on setting a time frame to complete trial.
Tulsiram, who was perhaps the only eyewitness to the killing of gangster Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi by a joint team of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra police, was killed in 2006. Following an order by Supreme Court, the investigation of the case was handed to CBI in April 2011 to probe the larger conspiracy in relation to the killing.