MUMBAI: Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s elder brother Shahnawazuddin Sheikh, with alleged BJP links wants to testify as witness in the fake encounter case.
In the last Lok Sabha election, Shahnawazuddin had reportedly campaigned for a BJP candidate in Madhya Pradesh, reported the Mumbai Mirror.
47-year-old Sheikh on Thursday moved the application before Judge S. J. Sharma that read, “Applicant (Shahnawazuddin) has now been forced to approach this court as he has recently learned that the prosecuting agency, the CBI, has failed to include the applicant as witness in this case and has also failed to produce duly reference materials seized from the applicant. These materials are four blank pages signed by the other victim in this case, Tulsiram Prajapati, which were seized by the CBI dated 18.02.2010.”
According to the application, Sheikh moved the special CBI court after “hearing distressing news of many of the accused getting discharged from the case without the same being challenged by the CBI.”
However, Rubabuddin, another brother of Sohrabuddin is the complainant in the case expressed shock on hearing the news of Shahnawazuddin coming to court.
“I feel someone is making him do this. He attends BJP meetings and has campaigned for it in the past. What is happening is not right,” Rubabuddin was quoted as saying to the Mumbai Mirror.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which probed the case, Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly picked up by the Gujarat ATS team when they were proceeding from Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh, to Sangli in Maharashtra in a bus.
While Sheikh – described as a terrorist linked with global terror groups and planning a ‘strike’ – was gunned down near Gandhinagar, his wife Kausarbi was killed after a couple of days.
A co-passenger travelling with the couple, Tulsiram Prajapati, who was the sole prime witness in the alleged ‘fake encounter’ case, was later killed by police in an encounter at Chhapri Village in Banaskantha district in December 2006.
At the time, the CBI contended that an impression was sought to be created that Sheikh was shot dead by the police when he tried to escape from their clutches.
IANS inputs